Hidden
by NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD
Summary: Used to be Cars 2: Hidden. Too many hidden scratches, too many hidden faces, and way too many hidden secrets. What happens when everybody's past becomes the spotlight of attention? [LightningSally][DocOC]
1. Pointless Memory

**Hey, it's ME! I'm back to destroy your minds! Mwa ha ha ha!**

**I've seen Cars three times, and for all we know, that could be and counting! I LOVE Cars! W00t! So, anyway, here's the fanfic. Enjoy!**

_Okay, here we go. _

_Focus. _

_I am speed. _

Cars were speeding by in his mind, driving to their hardest.

_Victory. _

_Three winners. _

_Forty losers. _

More were passing by.

"Ya ready, Lightning?"

"Oh, yeah."

There went the rest, going by, never to come back.

_Let's do this._

The door on the back of Mack the truck opened to reveal smiling and happy Lightning McQueen. The crowed was cheering as if somebody destroyed a meteor that was going to make the world end. Lightning definitely had his fans.

"Show the bolt!" one fan screamed.

He turned to his side and laughing a bit. "Ka-chow!"

The crowd was getting louder and louder by the second. Lights were flashing everywhere, cameras were recording the news, the moment was perfect. There was almost NOTHING better than this. There may have been over a hundred cars there, but there was only one car he was looking at. It was a light-blue Porsche. Doc couldn't be there that day. Too many people were going to be at the tailgate party in Radiator Springs and he would have to be there in order for people to stay in control. Sally was replacing him for the day so that people could actually meet him. The question was, would Sally do a good job?

----------

There were only a few people at the pit stop for Lightning McQueen. There was, of course, Sally, Luigi, and Guido. Mator came, Filmore joined ("Watching things electronically just ruins the purpose, man."), and someone who had become new to the town, Ramone and Flo's daughter, Lexie (A/N: Lexie the LEXUS!), the hot-pink Lexus 2007 ES 350, had joined. When you're the pit crew, it's free to get in. And great seats, too.

But that was it. While the whole town would be there for Piston (if Lightning made it to the top three), for now, they didn't need the whole town.

"Okay, Stickers, this is how I'm gonna get you to win," said Sally into the headset she was wearing. "If you get within the top three, you get not one, but two dates. Got it?"

"Very funny. I'm in."

"Good for you. Now let's get that Piston!"

"But this isn't the Piston Cup."

"So what? This gets you one step closer. And one more thing. Make sure that you beat Chick, and then you get to choose the dates."

"Even better."

Lightning had passed a lot of cars by the time he was in his fiftieth lap. He was within the top ten. Sixth place, to be exact. Chick was only one place in front. He could wait a little bit. Almost all the cars were taking pit stops. This was a good opportunity. Lightning needed another lap and then a pit stop.

"Hey you!" said Chick's crew chief to Sally. "Doc was too weak to come today, huh? So now Lightning McQueen's girlfriend is his crew chief!"

Sally wanted to say something back, even though she couldn't. She had the headset on at all times.

"Ready for your pit stop?" asked Sally.

"I'm coming," said Lightning.

"Pit stop!" said Guido.

Darrell Cartrip started talking. "Today's Song of the Race is 'When it All Falls Apart' by the Veronicars (A/N: The Veronicars were inspired by the Veronicas, my favorite band EVER! When it All Falls Apart is actually their second single in the US), who will be performing after the Piston Cup in our Late-Night Concerts. You buy tickets to the Piston, and then you get a free ticket for the concert! You can also just buy tickets for the concert. Today's Late-Night Concert is Chris Daughtry, who's famous for singing a cover to 'Wanted Dead or on Drive.'" The song 'When it All Falls Apart' started playing.

"OMIGOD!" screamed Lexie. "IT'S THE VERONICARS! I LOVE THE VERONICARS!" Lightning came in for his pit stop. Guido was working his rather quick magic on him, so Lexie started talking. "Listen, you aren't just winning for those dates with Sally, you're winning so I can see the Veronicars afterwards! SO WIN FOR PETE'S SAKE!"

"Lexie," said a rather annoyed Lightning. He had to get a move-on. The pit stop was done. He raced out as fast as he could. He was now in third place, which was, once again, one spot behind Chick. He hated Chick. Chick was a self-centered idiot. If Chick won, he had nothing to gain.

Time was going by fast. More pit stops had been taken, but not much happened. Nobody in front of him had changed spots. It was already the last lap.

Lightning, without thinking, rushed ahead to see if he could get in front of Chick. He was going faster than he ever thought he would. It was almost unstoppable. He was so close; he could feel the marbles coming off of Chick's wheels, hitting his face. It was a rage of furry that made him take the sharp left turn on the inside of the track and pass not only Chick, but the person in front of Chick. There it was. The finish line. He sped until he couldn't speed anymore, and then, that was it. The race was over. He made it. Those two dates with Sally were all his. And he got to choose, too.

"Good job, Stickers. When and where?"

"I'll tell you after I finish my victory lap."

"Alright. Love ya."

"Love you."

----------

It was the next day in Radiator Springs, and it was a rather sunny one, too. Lightning had told Sally that he had wanted to go to a place near the Wheel Well that way they would be alone. It would be perfect. Just the two of them, and nothing else.

But before that, Lightning, of course, would have to have the round of the photographers flashing cameras, reporters asking questions, and the occasional interview. His next would be his biggest. He was going to be on Parts Magazine. That was without a doubt, the biggest magazine in the United States. He was on the cover. The photo shoot had already taken place earlier that year. The interview would be about a page long, with more extra stuff added.

Lightning was riding along the road just a little bit when the famous reporter for Parts, Dina McRoads came into the town. "So this is the town of Radiator Springs, is it?"

Lightning looked around to see his interviewer was ready for an interview. "Well, what can I say? They like me here."

----------

"So, you won your last race. That has to be pretty exciting."

"Well, as long as I get third place or better, I'm good. But not anymore."

Question by question went on and on and on. When did you first start racing? He had started when he was little. When did you come to Radiator Springs? We all know that story. What's with the rusty old tow truck? Oh, you mean Mater? Who's that hippy car? That would be Filmore. What about the Jeep? Sarge? Is that yellow car one of your friends? Of, course, Luigi's his friend. Can you believe all the things that little blue one can do? Oh, who knows when Guido became so amazing? The hott pink one, is she currently living in Radiator Springs? Uh, yeah. We use to know you as a self-centered racecar, but aren't you a lot more caring now? Well, he thought so.

Finally! Only one more question. This was WAY more than a page.

"So, there have been rumors swirling about that light-blue Porsche that took place of the Hudson Hornet that's usually your pit crew chief. Is she a good relative, friend, girlfriend, or just somebody in the professional world you know?"

"Oh, that's, that's Sally Carrera. Yeah, she's currently my girlfriend. We're, uh, very happy. Well, I am, at least. She's an amazing person, and I would hate to lose her."

That had rapped it up. No more questions. Ugh, he needed some sleep.

----------

The next day was the last day Lightning had off. He needed a few things repaired for his next race, and who else to go to, other than Doc Hudson? He entered the office, tired and a little more quiet than usual. Some things always catch your eye, like, perhaps a plastic flamingo in a yard, or some car with an amazing design. But some things you just can't ignore. Lightning couldn't ignore the fact that the office was empty. He drove himself outside, to see the door to the garage was open. The last time he had looked in there, he had caused too much trouble. But there was nothing to hide anymore, right? Hadn't Doc had all his secrets revealed?

Daringly, Lightning went into the garage, looking around. Doc had found a plastic cup to replace one of his Piston Cups to hold his tools. Other than that, there was nothing new.

Lightning turned around. There was nothing to look at. But then, as he was just about to leave, he saw a picture frame, with a picture of a car. A girl car. A 1951 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe to be exact. Maybe one that Doc knew of. Maybe a girlfriend.

If she was a girlfriend, she was a beautiful one. She looked as if there was something she was hiding. Maybe a secret that nobody else could know. "Doc, she's amazing." He couldn't help but say that to himself.

Or so he thought.

"Lightning, remember last time you were in here?"

Lightning turned around to see Doc Hudson, there, just waiting impatiently. "I remember it as if it was yesterday."

"It caused a heap of trouble."

"You're telling me."

"I don't want you to cause any more. That there picture is a pointless memory. One that will never come back."

"Doc, you loved her, didn't you?"

Doc revved up his engine, because Lightning was making him mad. "I don't want to talk about some person who doesn't. Don't you have an appointment?"

"With you. What else can you be hiding? I mean, you're the Hudson Hornet. Now you have a love life, too. What's next? The secret children?"

"You have nothing to do with me and my life in the fifties!"

"Oh, so now we an era of time. I'm starting to think that you two WERE in love."

"Lightning, I've said it already! She's a pointless memory! Now get out of my garage before I make Mater come over here and tow you out personally! Do I make myself clear that I never want you to come into this garage again?" Doc was yelling his engine out so that Lightning would just shut up and leave.

Lightning had never seen that much aggression in Doc. EVER. "Doc… I… I didn't… I'm… I'm sor-"

"Just get out of here. This never happened, alright?" Doc had never been so cold. He never felt so cold. But what else could he do? There were just some things he had to keep to himself.

Lightning was a little struck in awe. This old racecar was hiding something, and he was going to find out exactly what that something was.

But first things first. He had a date with Sally.

**Dun dun dun DUN! Doc has more to his past than you think, everybody. Mwa ha ha ha HA! I'm not telling you what it is! Anyway, I figured that I'd better ask you guys this question.**

**Got reviews? Get it? Got milk? Got reviews? Ha.**


	2. A Little Too Loud

**Gah, I love you guys! Thanks so much for the 12 reviews! I've NEVER gotten that much on one chapter! Now, to clear something up for somebody, Lexie is NOT the person in the picture that Doc keeps. She's Ramone and Flo's daughter. Doc's, uh, picture person was from his 50s life. And finally, people who agree with me Lightning isn't gay! I mean, I have NOTHING against people with different sexualities, but it just kind of shocks me, you know?**

**So anyway, the story! YAY!**

"Just remember what I said. Get 'em and go."

"Trust me, I'll do it."

"Good. Don't disappoint me. I don't want to see him there, got it?"

"I know. I'm on my way, don't worry. What have you got to lose?"

----------

There were days when he felt like just leaving and going back. But he didn't. Ever since he arrived there was only one thing that was holding him back.

Sally.

That one word made his engine get butterflies. By now it was pretty clear he loved her. The whole town of Radiator Springs knew it. He used to have fans all over him. The fans used to have him all over then. But that changed.

He had to ask her something that night.

He just wasn't sure he had the guts to ask.

"Lightnin'! I've been thinkin' about it. With you askin' Sally to marry ya, and with me askin' nobody, I figered that you'd better tell me HOW yer gonna ask 'er."

"I told you not to say it so loud. Think about it Mater. If somebody finds out, Sally finds out, and that is not good."

"But yer askin' tonight!"

"I know. I'm just nervous. What if she says no?"

"Then yer just not gettin' married to 'er, that's all."

"That's all? It could mean a break-up, and I don't really want that."

"Yer just not gettin' married, then. I think I said that."

"But I love her, Mater. It's more difficult than just not getting married. It's the difference between winning and losing her."

"I guess yer right. But what in tarnation do I know about gettin' married and whatnot? I'm just a tow truck. G'night, Lightnin'."

"See ya, Mater."

Lighting McQueen was ready.

At least, he thought he was.

Okay, maybe he wasn't. But he was going to do what he had to do.

He could see her inside the Cozy Cone Motel from his house. Alone. Just waiting. For him. For him who was waiting for her.

He was SO not ready.

There was a part of him wanting to just to ask right then, but there was another part that didn't want to ask at all. He couldn't think of what to do. _This has to be hard for anybody, thought Lighting. There can't be somebody confident enough to think that no matter how much of an idiot they are, somebody like Sally would definitely marry them. This is Sally we're talking about._

Sally.

His engine started to feel a little jittery.

He was just standing there, waiting for her to say to herself 'Oh yeah! I have a date!' and drive outside to find her boyfriend.

Sally looked at her clock. Why wasn't he there yet? It was 10 minutes past the time he said he was going to be there. But she didn't see the former rookie racecar anywhere.

"Sally!" Lightning yelled. He wasn't getting any attention from her. "C'mon, Sal, I'm out here!" Still no answer.

With his last attempt to get her to at least look out the window, he revved up his engine so loud, the whole town could hear.

Sally jumped and screamed. What WAS that? She looked outside to find her boyfriend just staring at her. Only her. There were plenty of people watching, but she couldn't tell. It felt as if they were the only two people who lived there.

There was no question about it, Sally loved Lightning. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She was happy.

Sally drove outside, to where Lightning was.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I scare you?" Lightning said.

All Sally could do was laugh. He had said that to her when he had been arrested. Sure, it was annoying then, but he was making a joke out of it, now. "Well, a little bit, but I'll be alright," said Sally, quoting what Mater had said back to Lightning, even though the question was clearly not directed at him.

"Ha ha, but seriously. Did I?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine."

"Okay, good. Uh, sorry."

"Oh, no, it's fine. Seriously. So, where are we going?"

"You'll see. Follow me."

----------

"So this is it, huh?"

"Yeah, it is. You like it?"

"It's beautiful."

Sally and Lightning were both talking about where they were. Lightning had found a place where you could go down to the bottom of the waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous, and would make anybody melt just looking at it.

"Seriously, it's, it's amazing." Sally looked at Lightning. "Thank you."

Lightning put on a smile. "Good to know you're happy." He nudged her a little and she nudged back. They cuddled a little. Unfortunately, that was interrupted by somebody they didn't expect to see at all.

"Howdy, you two."

Lightning and Sally just looked at the person as if they were crazy. Then again, they were. Coming during their date was just, well, insane. In unison, they yelled "MATER?"

"Yup, that's my name."

"What," said Lightning. "Are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was jus' here to see if you remember that you were gonna ask Miss Salleh to marry yeh."

"You WHAT!" said Sally.

Mater looked at Lightning, who was giving him a dirty look. "How loud was that?" asked Mater.

"Just a little too loud, Mater. Just a little too loud."

"Well, sorreh 'bout that. Anyways, yuh forgot to bring this, whatever it is. G'bye, again!" Mater left a piece of paper. He decided it was about time to leave, knowing that maybe, just MAYBE, he shouldn't have done that.

Sally just stared at Lightning. Lightning stared at Sally. "You weren't."

"I wish I could tell you that was true."

"Lightning…" Sally couldn't find words to say at all. She looked at the piece of paper. What was on it? She opened up the piece, and began reading it.

_Dear Sally,_

_I'm not quite sure how to explain this, but you are the most amazing person I've ever met. I love every single bit of you, and hope to God that will never, ever change._

_There is something I've been hiding for a bit that I think you might want to know. Mater's been teasing me about it. I might as well ask. I think it's about time I make a commitment with you, and I'm not talking about just getting tattoos that say each others name on them. I'm in serious consideration of this. So I'm gonna say it now._

_Sally Carrera, will you marry me?_

_I'm sorry if you think that it's a bit shallow of me not to ask in person, but the truth is, I'm worried about being rejected. When you have your answer, come over, and say yes or no._

_Love,_

_Stickers_

Lightning was biting his tongue. Had Mater not have come to ruin the whole proposal, he wouldn't be so nervous. The plan was to give Sally the note at the end of the date, and then wait for in answer when he was at his house. Not for Mater to come in and ask "Did you ask yet?" and then for Sally to ask what they were talking about. For Pete's sake, Mater TOLD Sally! He pretty much asked Sally FOR him! "You, you know, it's not supposed to be like this, Sal."

Sally just looked at him, confused, and a little weirded out. "What do you mean? The proposal or Mater always invading us?"

Lightning thought about that statement. "Well, when you think of it, both. I mean, it's not like it's supposed to be perfect, but it's not supposed to be so, so meaningless."

"Asking me to marry you is not meaningless, Lightning. I love you. You know that. And I know you're scared about rejection. I've rejected a few people in my life. I guess I know how they must feel now. You think you know somebody enough, and then they just leave you forever. Just because they weren't ready to say yes to a question."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

There was a little bit of silence. Sally didn't know whether Lightning was marriage material. She had thought about it long and hard. Whether it would affect them in the long run or not, she didn't know. But she was going to do what she had to do.

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, Lightning! Yes! I'll marry you!"

"You will!"

"I mean, yeah. I guess so. Why wouldn't I?"

**Gah, there HAD to be something going wrong about that proposal, and who better to ruin it than Mater? Once again, THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS! 12, people, 12! But I could ALWAYS use more.**

**Read sentence above, which will lead you to giving me a review.**


	3. Bring in the Trouble

**Wahoo! Those reviews keep on friggin coming! I love it! Thank you guys! So, let's start from where we left off, shall we?**

On their way back to Radiator Springs from their messed up but wonderful date, Sally and Lightning couldn't keep their minds off of each other. They couldn't stop talking, either.

"You, know, I remember when you first came into town."

"How could anybody forget?"

"Yeah, I'm telling you, you were hitting on me way too much when we first met."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. You were all like 'All you have to do is just stand there and let me look at you.'"

"I was not."

"Oh, and then you were showing off your bolt. You pretty much blinded me."

"Okay, you can stop right there."

They laughed for a bit and started talking all over again. It pretty much a cycle. Talk, laugh. Talk, laugh. That's how it went.

Vroom. "AH!" was all the sudden heard. Both at the same time. You never get that often. Lightning looked at Sally. Sally looked at Lightning.

"Did you hear something?" asked Sally.

"I THINK I did."

They looked over and drove until they saw a light-green 2002 Corvette ZO6 who had crashed into the statue of Stanley. It was ruined. The car was ruined. They couldn't think of something that wasn't ruined, for Pete's sake. All the car was doing was trying to back up and say "Ow, ow ow ow ow," a billion times. The girl had a strong Southern accent.

"That has GOT to hurt," said Sally.

"Should we get Doc?" asked Lightning.

"Oh, yeah."

Lightning and Sally rushed to Doc's office. Chrysler, who was he working on?

"DOC!" Lightning and Sally screamed.

"What do you two want?" asked Doc. "I'm fixing something on Lexie."

"That's Lexie?" asked Sally.

"Heck yeah, it is!" said Lexie. "What are you guys doing here? I'm busy."

"It's the Stanley statue," said Lightning. "Somebody crashed into it. They kind of look like you when you crashed, Doc."

"Nothing can look that bad. Nothing except…" Doc trailed off. What was he saying? They weren't going to find out. "Never mind."

Sally looked at Lightning. "What's he talking about?" she whispered.

"I don't… I don't know," he whispered back. "Well, I might know, but I'm not sure."

Doc, Lightning, and Sally drove out with Lexie going "Hey! What about me? I'm still in here you know! I HAVE to get this stupid stick out of my engine! Hello?" One look made Doc's mind shiver. He looked and didn't want to look at that Corvette ever again. It WAS as bad. "Elle," he whispered to what he thought was himself, but loud enough for Lightning to hear.

"Oh, so now we have a name!" said Lightning. "You DID love her!"

"Lightning, I told you already, she doesn't matter! We… we need to get Mater to tow her into my office."

----------

By the time that Mater had pulled the girl into the office, the girl was worried she might not make it. Panicking was what she was doing.

"Where am I? What IS this place? What was with the statue? Am I seeing things?"

"Hold it for a bit," said Doc. "What your name?"

"Tessa Carson."

"What happened?"

"Well… Somebody bumped into me, and I guess that ruined my breaks, so they didn't work. And I'm guessing they still don't work," said Tessa, in her very strong accent. "So I ended up losing control, and I crashed."

"Where are you from?"

"Why?"

"I'm trying to get your mind off of the operation."

"OPERATION?"

"Yes, Tessa. Just say where you're from."

"Dallas, Texas."

"Got a family?"

"Nope."

Lightning, Sally, Lexie, and Doc gave her a funny look when she said that.

"Well," said Doc, trying to break the subject. I'm gonna give you new breaks. When you get them, somebody better teach her to drive again." Doc gave a cruel look Lightning. "You can."

"WHAT?" said Lightning. "Come on, Doc, I have a fiancée!"

"You don't have a fiancée. Somebody like you would never settle down."

Sally was a little offended by that. "Doc, that's a little rude to his fiancée, isn't it?" Sally gave Doc a bit of a glare.

Doc got it. He didn't want to cause anymore trouble with that. "Ah, forget it. But you're going to teach that car to drive," Doc said to Lightning. "And if you do it by the time that you get to the Piston race, you might find out who that girl in the picture is."

"You know what, Doc?" said Lightning. "That idea is great. I'll teach her. And then I'll tell everybody about your past."

"Or you could just race me."

"I think that idea is better. Way better."

"I can here you!" screamed Lexie. "You aren't having a race like this without me!"

"And what about me?" asked Sally. "I'm interested. But I'm not a good teacher. Take me out of the bet part of the race, and I'm good."

"Same."

"So, we got Sally and Lexie to join. It's girls against boys," said Lightning. "Let's race."

----------

The four cars were lined up at the beginning of Willy's Butte. Everybody was watching the race. Mater was cheering for Lightning, Flo and Ramone were rooting for their daughter, Lexie, Red, Sarge, and Fillmore was just there, and who knows who Luigi and Guido were there for? There weren't any Ferrari's there. Tessa watched from the sidelines, wondering who was going to teach her to drive from all this. One thing was for sure. She didn't want that Lexus teaching her. Sheriff was going over the rules.

"There will be only one lap to this race. You will drive around Willy's Butte, and come back. There will be no bumpin', no cheatin', no spittin', no bitin', no road-ragin', no mammon, no oil slicks, no pushin', no shovin', no back-stabbin', no road-hoggin', and no lollygaggin'. (A/N: Check out that long quote!)"

"Question?"

"Yes, Lexie."

"What WILL there be?"

"A new unreleased song by the Veronicars."

"SERIOUSLY?"

"No!"

Lexie pouted. "Party pooper."

"Everybody, start your engines!"

Doc's started up slow, as his always did. Lightning decided to show off to Sally, to make her laugh a bit. A loud VROOM came from his engine. Sally, who did in fact laugh, and Lexie's started out like normal engines would. The race was SO on.

Luigi came up to the racers. "Anybody need a pit stop, today?" he asked in his strong Italian accent.

Dead silence.

"Fine. Are you ready? On your mark! Get ready! One for the money! Two, well actually, four for the show! Three to get ready! And four to… Oh, I can't breathe… GO!"

Everybody made a drive for it. They went as far as they could. At the moment, Lightning was, of course, in front of everybody. But the other cars realized something. Sheriff never said no _cutting_.

Sally, Doc, and Lexie cut half of the track, making them official winners. Which meant poor Lightning would have to teach Tessa how to drive. How in the world was he supposed to do that? When Lightning got to the finish line, he was furious with Doc. "You're the better driver. You taught ME how to drive. You should teach her."

"Dream on, hot rod," said Doc. "Looks like I won't be telling you about the picture for a while. Now get to work."

**Gah ha ha. I'm just gonna keep you guys waiting forever. You'll never find out! Okay, you will. But not for a while. And that Tessa, oh, she'll be important, I'll tell you that much.**

**Where art thou reviews?**


	4. Appointments and Veronicars Songs

**Okay, people. Earlier, I posted that the next chapter would have some slash. I guess I haven't exactly gotten used to the meaning slash yet, because I feel like now the term slash means they're in love or something. Oh, no. NO. Lightning and Mater will not even think about that during this fic. With each other, at least. I am SO sorry if people thought it meant all out and stuff.**

_I admit it._

_I hate the idea._

Sally was driving back and forth in the lobby of the Wheel Well, which was actually now full of vacancy. What was with her and her tingle in the back of her front tires? Was it regret? Weariness? _Jealousy?_

No, she wasn't jealous.

_Doc MADE him._

_He didn't want to at all._

The tingle kept coming and coming ever second she thought of Doc. Had he thought of her thinking this much? Was Doc trying to PAIR him with this girl?

Never. He wouldn't.

_It's just a phase._

_It'll go away._

"Oh, SALLY!" screamed a voice which sounded exact to our good friend Lexie.

"Hi, Lex," said a very worried Sally.

"Guess what? I found a new song by the Veronicars! I bought it. SO good."

"What song?"

"Well, it's actually two songs. But only one that I've had on repeat for an hour. It's called 'Did Ya Think.'"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah! It's awesome. Listen to it."

As Sally listened to the lyrics, she realized they were like her thinking about Doc. It had only been six hours since the race, but they felt so accurate. Almost as if what was GOING to happen. From what she was listening, the lyrics were like this.

_She asked if you could stay _

_Did ya think about me when _

_You almost turned away _

_Did you think about me when _

_You picked up the phone _

_Should have let it just ringing _

_And made it seem like everything _

_Was the same as it had always been_

_Did ya think about me being half awake and crying_

_Lying on the floor and waiting for the break of day _

_Didn't think about tearing me apart_

_At any moment in the night you could have tried to make it right_

She could just picture it. Headlines in the paper wondering who the gorgeous light-green Corvette was. Pictures of him that showed that he was falling in love with her. Finally, the confession. The story that he said that they were happily in love.

_No, no, NO!_

"Lexie, I… I gotta go." Sally drove off, starting to cry a little. And she didn't even KNOW if Lightning liked the idea.

Lexie just looked at Sally, confused and worried. What was Sally thinking? Had the song made her think of what could happen?

----------

_Oh, me?_

_I LOATHE the idea._

Lightning was outside Doc's office, who was back for what was supposed to be his appointment that one day when he discovered the picture. He was worried Sally was upset about this. HE was upset about this.

What if she wasn't upset about it? _Happy_ about it?

_She wouldn't be happy._

_She would've said no to the proposal._

Or maybe she just was giving him a sympathy marriage. And that the light-green Corvette would save her from paying for what she did. But what if Doc had planned it to teach him a lesson?

She would never agree to it if he did.

_I'm going crazy._

_I'll be back to normal tomorrow._

"LIGHTNING!" yelled Lexie, who had just come from Wheel Well to see Lightning.

"Lexie, my good friend Lexie," said a very bored Lightning.

"I found a new song by the Veronicars! It's awesome!"

"Good for you, Lexie. Just what we need. Another song for you to have on repeat for an hour."

"Yep! It's called 'Did Ya Think.' You wanna hear it?"

"No."

Nonetheless, Lexie played it, not caring what Lightning said.

Lightning, who was too bored to not to, listened to the lyrics, wondering if this was what would happen. Maybe Sally would be like this. Upset that he had left her. He definitely was listening to Sally's worst nightmare.

_She asked if you could stay_

_Did ya think about me when_

_You almost turned away_

_Did you think about me when_

_You picked up the phone_

_Should have let it just ringing_

_And made it seem like everything_

_Was the same as it had always been_

_Did ya think about me being half awake and crying_

_Lying on the floor and waiting for the break of day _

_Didn't think about tearing me apart_

_At any moment in the night you could have tried to make it right_

It was all in a flash, but he was thinking of what Sally had thought earlier. Headlines in the paper wondering who the gorgeous light-green Corvette was. Pictures of him that showed that he was falling in love with her. Finally, the confession. The story that he said that they were happily in love.

_This better not actually happen._

"Lexie, I gotta go. You go tell somebody else about your little Veronicars song, okay?" asked Lightning.

"Sounds good to me. Oh, by the way, I think that Sally doesn't like the song."

Lightning gave Lexie a bit of a glare. "No, you think?"

He went into the clinic, trying to get his mind off of Sally. But how _could_ he? She was, well, everything to him. He didn't want to lose her. Ever. Unfortunately, he couldn't think about that right now. Doc was standing there, waiting for Lightning to get on the lifter-thingy (A/N: Who knows what that's called? Tell me!) so he could begin fixing him. Once he did, it was silence for a little.

"You know, Doc," said Lightning. "I hate the idea."

"That's exactly what I thought you would say. I'm trying to teach you a lesson."

"Yeah, teach me to get further away from Sally?"

"What does Sally have to do with this?"

"Tessa is a _girl_. Don't you find it strange?"

"I've had girl patients all the time, and I haven't dated any."

"Yeah, that's because your patients are more than thirty years younger than you. Tessa, she, she's my age. And Sally, I don't know, she, I don't think she likes it."

"Oh, so you're saying you like Tessa?"

"NO! NEVER! It's just, I don't know. I would hate to lose Sally."

"So you now you're getting married and you're worried this Tessa kid is gonna ruin your relationship."

"Oh, so _now_ you get it."

"Yes, I do. But here's the thing, Lightning." Doc brought down Lightning so he could drive again. "You can't be legally married in Radiator Springs."

Lightning was confused. What did that mean? "Are Flo and Ramone married?"

"Well, then, we had a priest here. Flo and Ramone got married then. Then he left."

"So you're saying, no priest, no marriage?"

"No legal one in Radiator Springs."

"We'd have to move out in order to get married?"

"Sorry, kid, but yes."

"Doc, you're a judge. Why can't _you_ be the priest for a day?"

"I've had too much of thoughts of weddings ever since you saw that picture. I don't want anymore."

"Okay, this is wonderful. Her name is Elle, and she married you."

"Lightning, I won't give it up. The more you ask, the more I'll keep it a secret."

"Seriously? Because so far, the more I've been asking, the more you've been letting those secrets come out of your mouth."

----------

"So, yer sayin' that yuh don't want Salleh to worry?"

"Yep."

"And that the Tessa girl isn't importent?"

"Yep."

"You gonna keep sayin' 'yep' until I stop askin' questions?"

"It depends on the question, Mater."

"Whatever. So, anyway, I figered you and I should go do somethin' tonight."

"Eh… I don't know, Mater. I was hoping to take Sally out tonight."

"Well, then, you can bring 'er."

"You think that that's a good idea?"

"Of course I do. It was my idea."

"But who would you bring?"

"You can ask Salleh to ask somebodeh."

"Okay, fine, I give in. It'll be like a double date or something, right?"

"Shoot, Lightnin'. I'm not sure that I'd consider it a double date. Not unless I ask that Tessa girl."

"You better not, Mater. You better not. Well, I gotta go. Nice talkin' to ya, buddy."

"Sure thing, Lightnin'."

Lightning was going on his was to the Cozy Cone, when out of the left field in his mind, he realized that he better not ask Sally to come. They would be doing something stupid, like finding the ghost light or something.

But they needed the time together.

Before things were going to get a little out of hand.

**Okay, I posted too much up there. :-p But still, guys, it's not purposely slash. It just… is. I mean, I don't wanna give too much away. They're in a situation that weirds them out, that's what I can say.**

**So anyway, I know you probably think I'm crazy now, but… anybody up for a review?**


	5. Jealous of Tessa

**Welcome to the chapter that I have been warning most people about. :p Go ahead, scream and run. But they (they being coughcoughlightningmater) don't fall in love. They will _never_ fall in love. Nor will they go on a date, or have a small crush, or anything like that. So anyway, story time. Lightning is telling Sally about Mater's idea.**

"With _Mater_?"

"Don't ask. It's just that… I, I dunno, I feel like because of this Tessa girl, things are, you know…"

"The town's gonna turn upside-down."

"Exactly, and we, well, we didn't have any plans tonight, and I was going to ask, but then Mater asked to do something, and well, he said I could invite you."

"So you're going on a date with Mater _and_ me."

"Interesting and gross way to say it, but does that mean you'll go?"

Sally nodded. "It's the least I can do. Tessa's gonna stir something up."

"Oh, and uh, you can bring somebody. Just not Tessa. _Never_ Tessa."

"Oh, trust me, I won't. Would um, Lexie be okay?"

Lightning gave Sally that annoyed look. "Please, no."

"You don't like Lexie?"

"She's, eh, annoying. I get bored of her."

"She's just turned thirteen."

"She's a teeny-booper, Sally."

"Well, what do you expect?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe somebody who isn't overly obsessed with something as stupid as the Veronicars!"

"So she listens to their music too much. So what?"

"So I can't even plug my ears because that's almost impossible!"

Sally just shook her head at her fiancée. "Out of all the things we could fight about, we choose to fight about something stupid like this. Tessa's tearing us apart already, and she hasn't done anything!"

"Oh, so you just decide to blame it all on Tessa?"

"Are you defending her?"

"Maybe I am! Because if she has nothing to do with this, why _would_ we blame her?"

"Because she's making me jealous, Lightning!" That was when the tears kicked in. Sally was starting to cry. Not too much, but still doing so. "Because I think that there's something going on in Doc's head. Like, maybe he doesn't like me. Or maybe he still doesn't like you, or, or maybe he just doesn't want you to get hurt or something, but Tessa, she, she just gets me a little worried."

"She gets us all worried. And no need to be jealous, alright? She should be jealous that you are marrying _the_ Lightning McQueen. Ka-chow!"

"You may be Lightning McQueen out on that racetrack, but to me, you're Stickers." Sally gave him a little kiss. "So, when and where do we meet?"

"I think seven would be okay. We're meeting at Mater's place."

"So, who should I bring then?"

"Eh, just go ahead a bring Lexie. What we're gonna do is something that requires being quiet." An evil grin spread across Lightning's face. He was thinking that they would go tractor tipping. But boy, was he _wrong_.

----------

It was pretty easy to hear the song 'Did Ya Think' when Lexie pulled up by a hill where Lightning, Sally, and Mater were, so that they could have some fun together. The song brought back memories, and I mean bad ones.

"'Ey, Lightnin'? Isn't this the song you were talkin' 'bout, how it made ya think of how upset Miss Salleh must've been and whatnot?"

Sally nudged Lightning a little at that statement. He _was_ worried. She could breathe now.

"So, what are we doing? Oh, can't be past ten. I have curfew," said Lexie.

"You're only thirteen, and you already have curfew," said Sally.

"Yeah, they said something about trusting me or whatever. I wasn't listening. Tia and Mia were screaming. Ugh. They're such teeny-boopers."

Lightning could feel his face getting a little bit hot. He couldn't let Lexie know that he had called _her_ a teeny-booper herself. Tia and Mia were way more teeny-booper-ish than Lexie. Randomly, his mind went from Lexie to Elle, Doc's girl. She had officially been Doc's girl. He confirmed it. Now, what was he sad about? He found out Doc was married.

Married.

Marrige.

Engagement.

Sally.

Illegal.

_Oh, right._

How the heck was he supposed to tell her that? "Uh, Sally?" _Whoops._

_Maybe she won't respond._

"Yeah?"

_Oh, she responded, alright._ "There's something I um… I have to tell ya something, Sal."

Sally was confused. "Um, sure."

_Here we go… Oh, god help me._ "Well, uh…" _Wait a minute. Maybe Lexie and Mater shouldn't hear this._ "Can you guy, uh, leave?"

"Hey! We can here anything!" said Lexie. "As long as it's not cursing. Or talk about, well, I'm not even going there."

"Now, look, Miss Lexeh," said Mater. "I think we needs to leave these two alone."

Lexie did her now famous pout. "Fine." They drove away, wondering what was going on.

"So?" Sally asked. She was getting anxious.

_Here we go. Again._ "Doc said, well, he said that we, we couldn't get legally married in Radiator Springs." _ Phew, I got it over with. That was almost as hard as the proposal._ Lightning looked over to Sally. She looked like she was about to cry. "No, Sally, I, I don't want this, either. I wanna stay here, but if we wanna get married, we, we can't."

Sally just didn't respond. It was too much to take in. She couldn't. She would break down.

Lightning let out a sigh. There was nothing else he could do.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEHOO!" was heard in the distance from a voice that sounded exactly like Mater's. "I'M THE FIRS' ONE HILL ROLLIN'!"

"MATER, YOU WEIRDO!" screamed none other that Lexie. "SHUT UP AND SLOW DOWN! WHO PUSHED YOU ANYWAY?"

"YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T?"

"YOU KIDDING ME?"

Now Mater wasn't screaming for his enjoyment. He was screaming for his life. He was reaching the bottom of the hill, but he was still going faster and faster. Lexie tried to catch up with him by going faster than him, and so far, it was working, she was next to him, keeping a distance. She didn't want to end up in some freak accident. Lightning turned around and saw that Mater was coming right at him. It obviously wasn't on purpose, but it wasn't the coolest thing in the world. They both screamed for their lives, and then they crashed, Sally being told by Lexie what was happening. Lightning and Mater were both physically okay, but there was something that felt a little _weird_. What was that thing on their lips? Lightning looked down and saw the rusty car's lips right on his. Where was the gap between those lips? WHERE WAS THAT GAP? Lightning looked right into Mater's eyes, who had also discovered that they were, were, they didn't even want to think about what they were doing. (A/N: There was the part. It will affect the future a bit. Just warning you!) They're eyes were as wide as they're window panels would let them get. They both backed away with speed and screamed. "Oh, god," said Lightning, who could hear Lexie laughing her head off. He turned his head to her. "Why are you laughing?" He turned to Sally. "Why is she laughing?"

"Did you NOT notice what you just did?" asked Lexie with giggles in between her syllables. "LIGHTNING MCQUEEN JUST KISSED A BOY!"

Sally couldn't help it anymore. This was too funny. She bursted out laughing. Lightning gave her one of those 'not you, too' looks. "Please, you don't find that funny, do you?"

"I'm not sure I'd be laughing otherwise, Lightning," said a laughing Sally. "I just think it's funny. Because, well, we thought that _Tessa _was gonna cause problems, and here you are, kissing Mater right in front of me!" Sally kept on laughing with Lexie. What else was there to do? What's better than watching a hot-shot racecar and his best friend run lips into each other on accident?

Mater and Lightning looked at each other, both totally embarrassed. What had they just done? They were _best_ friends! Not _boy_friends! "Uh, Mater, I-"

"It's okay, Lightnin'. It's my fault, I guess. I ran into yuh."

"Mater, it's not your fault. Just a little strange."

"Not _bad_, was it?"

Lightning rose what would be his eyebrows. What exactly did he mean by the 'kiss' wasn't _bad_? "Well, I mean, not bad bad, but just, just crazy and weird and, all those other insane feelings."

Mater nodded. "I mean, this won't jeeportize (In Mater world, that's jeopardize) our friendship, will it?"

"Oh, never."

"Yer a good friend, Lightnin'."

Lightning smiled a little. "Thanks, Mater." He was upset deep inside though. That was the worst thing that could ever happen between you and your best friend. And for your fiancée to laugh at you, well, that's another thing. Lightning spat on the ground, making sure he didn't have any bit of Mater on him. He couldn't think.

_Wait a minute. _

_Sally's laughing._

_Oh, good, she doesn't care._

_Wait._

_Is it a bad thing if she doesn't care?_

_If she doesn't care, does that really mean she's giving me a sympathy marriage?_

_Does she… not love me?_

**Ah, Lightning's worried! Poor him. Wait. _I'm_ doing the stuff to him. Bad me! Bad! LOL. But anyway, don't worry. Everything between Mater and Lightning will be fine from now on. Nothing more between them.**

**So, now that _that's_ over with, how about you give me a review?**


	6. VERY Jealous of Tessa

**HOLY TOLEDO! I found a picture of an actual Hudson Hornet! No, not Doc, silly. A real live Hudson Hornet! AH! I was originally going to use it for a character, then I looked closer, and it was the same car as Doc! Ha. I'm so weird. So anyway, as I spaz on about the Hudson Hornet, you can read the story!**

"Turn that disrespectful junk off!"

"Respect the classics, man! It's Hendrix!"

Lightning let out a slight sigh. This conversation between Sarge and Fillmore had happened every single morning that Lightning woke up. The radio was turned on to satellite radio. Sally always had in on the station that had all the known songs on, now that the town was known. From boredom, Lightning listened to the radio. It was the one that Rascal Flat Tires sung. (A/N: Get it? I'm so funny)

_What hurts the most_

_Is being so close_

Lightning _was_ close. He was close to that lesson with Tessa. It was only a few minutes before she would come in. He sighed again. Tessa didn't need to be taught to drive. Or so he thought. Because when she came in, she was sliding all over the place, not able to stop. She ended running into a wall, sliding back over into a glass case that held all of Lightning's trophies, and then by the desk, where she finally stopped.

"So," said Tessa, who was out of breath. "What are we doin' today?"

Lightning looked at the glass case. Sally was _not_ going to be happy. "Well…" Lightning started. What _were_ they doing that day? "We're, um, teaching you how to drive?"

Tessa laughed a bit. "You have no idea what we're doin', do you?"

"Not a clue," said an upset Lightning. He thought that because Sally hadn't talked to him since she laughed hysterically. Except for a few words. His memory was playing that moment in his head over and over again.

----------

_Lightning and Sally were driving back from their "date." Heck, it wasn't even a fake date. Lightning was worried what Sally really thought. She hadn't talked at all since she laughed at him. There was something going on, and he was going to find out._

"_Sally?" said Lightning. "I'm, I'm sorry about what happened. I mean, Mater and I never expected something as weird as that to happen. Sure, something weird, but not that weird."_

_Sally kept looking away from Lightning. She stayed silent, and Lightning had no clue why. "Sally?" She didn't talk. "Sally, I, can you please talk?" No noise was filling up the room. "Please?"_

"_I should not have laughed." She drove away, turning off the lights._

_Lightning looked confused. Why was she so upset? Did she care? Did she actually think that he, he, he didn't even want to think of what possibilities were going on in her gears. She was ignoring him. He could see that. But why?_

----------

"Lightnin'? Earth to Lightnin' McQueen!" said Tessa.

"Wha…" Lightning was lost. What was he doing? He had thought about that "conversation" between him and Sally so much, he didn't know quite what was happening. He looked at Tessa and then realized that he had actually been _talking_ to her. "Oh, right, uh, the, uh, the driving lesson. Yeah, no clue what to do."

"Silly, you're caught in that one Porsche's business," said Tessa.

Lightning was a little shocked that Tessa had said that. Wasn't she supposed to cause trouble? "You can tell Sally and I are going out?"

"Duh. Don't you remember when you were all 'I'm not teachin' her how to drive! I have a fiancée, you know!' You think I couldn't hear that?"

_Oh, right._ "…yeah. So anyway, instead of making you do a lesson of my choice, because I honestly have no idea what to do with you, why don't you decide what we do?"

"You're gonna trust me with that?"

"Why not?"

"Alright. Um… I can't think of anything either."

"Then let's just a drive."

"A drive? You mean like a… a _date_?"

Lightning's eyes went wide. "NO!" _What am I doing? I pretty much just asked her to go on a date with me! I'm engaged! I don't like her! Well, I, I like her, but not that way!_ "No, I, did I make it sound like a date?"

Tessa's frown was now showing all her teeth. "Maybe a little."

"Oh, great. Now my fiancée is gonna think I'm cheating on her. Great!"

"No, no, no! I mean, I don't like you that way."

"I know."

There was dead silence. Not a single thing was heard.

"So, should we actually _take_ that drive?" asked Tessa.

Lightning looked at Tessa and smiled a little. "Sure, why not?" They drove out of the Cozy Cone, and took a road that lead into Ornament Valley.

As Sally was coming back from the Wheel Well to her Cozy Cone Motel to see her beloved Lightning McQueen, she drove until she saw the red racecar next to the light-green Corvette. Were they talking? Laughing? Having a good time? Did Lightning… like her? Was she nothing?

She drove into the Cozy Cone and started crying. _I made a bad impression yesterday. I should've talked to him._

"Salleh?"

Sally looked up and saw that it was Mater. "Hey."

"I was up on my way tuh Flo's, but then I heards ya cryin'."

"I'm fine, Mater."

"It's alright, Salleh. You know, I think I kinda like that Tessa girl."

Sally laughed, choking back tears at the same time. "Well, you have a good chance."

"Good day, Miss Salleh!"

As Mater drove out, Sally felt like maybe she was being too much of a worry wart. "Hey. Mater?"

Mater turned around. "Yes?"

"Thanks. Thanks for helping me."

Mater smiled. He left, wondering why Sally was crying in the first place. But why did he care? He had fuel to drink.

----------

Sally was far done crying, but she wasn't exactly done being upset. Lightning and Tessa hadn't been back for two hours. How much were they doing together? _What_ were they doing together?

"The number one requested song. Now," said the radio in its dramatic voice.

_Breathe in_

_Breathe out_

Sally recognized the song a bit.

_Isn't this that new song by Kelly Carson?_

_Wait._

_Isn't Tessa's last name Carson?_

Sally could hear a little bit of a revved-up engine when Lightning came back from his time with Tessa. They both looked at each other, unable to start a conversation. The silence wouldn't stop.

"Sal, I, I'm still sorry about last night."

"That wasn't your fault."

"Then why weren't you talking?"

"It made me seem like an idiot. If I accidentally ran into Lexie like that, would you laugh at me?"

"… probably… not."

"See?"

"Sally, it's okay, alright?"

"Yeah. But…"

Lightning squinted his eyes a little. "But?"

"… but Tessa, you, you drove off with her today. You weren't really teaching her anything." As Lightning's eyes went a little wider than usual, Sally continued. "It almost looked like you two were… _happy_."

"Sally, do you think I would… cheat on you?"

Sally turned around and looked at her fiancée. He looked worried. Sad. "I mean, I don't know. Like we said, she's gonna turn the town upside-down. I guess we were right, is all."

"Sally, just because a girl comes into town and she eyes that tell you 'come and get it' doesn't mean that I'm gonna follow. She…" Lightning was at a loss of words at that point. There was something he wanted to say, but he didn't know how without making it sound like it came out of a soap opera. It was either he said it cheesily, or he didn't say it at all. And he wasn't _not_ going to say it. "She can't make me not feel the way I do about you. And I love you. You know that." With every word, Lightning got closer and closer to Sally. They got to the point where they're lips were nearly touching.

Sally backed up and out of the position she was in, and teasingly said, "Which soap opera did you get that from?"

Lightning, laughing, followed, happy that, for now, everything was alright.

**Alright, so now things start to get a little different. The next chapter will have Doc and his mystery person. People will tell Lightning amazing stories. Ha ha.**

**Do I smell… reviews?**


	7. Chapter Five All Over Again

**I LOVE YOU GUYS! LMAO John. Chapter five made me laugh writing it. Thanks to everybody! You guys are amazing. Thanks so much for all the support.**

**Now, this chapter has some flashbacks from the past. Doc's past! Fun, right? Of course right. :p**

"Hey, there's my sexy hotrod!"

"Lizzie…"

Lightning was passing by Lizzie's shop, when, of course, Lizzie spotted him trying to sneak by.

"So, anyway, hotrod, I heards ya got caught in a little accident with Mater."

Lightning's eyes were as wide as they could go. "WHAT?"

"Don't ask me, ask the tabloids that just came in today!"

Lightning rushed into Lizzie's story and found a picture with him and Mater, lips touching on the cover of almost every magazine in the store. "Oh, Jesus Chrysler."

"So, yer already over Sally, huh? She not exciting enough, or something?"

"It's a long story, Lizzie."

"Alright, you do what you want. I've got an hour until my appointment at Doc's."

Almost as if a light bulb lit above his head, Lightning got the sudden idea that _maybe_ Lizzie knew something about Doc and Elle that he didn't. "Hey, Lizzie?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an… well, I don't wanna say old car, but, a car who's been around for a while."

"And you're point?"

"Do you know anything about an, an Elle Hudson?"

Lightning couldn't tell, but Lizzie looked shocked that the name mentioned. "How do you know about Elle?"

"I have my sources. Now, tell me about her."

"Alright. I'll tell you as much I can."

----------

**1951, Piston Cup Winners Circle**

It was the Hudson Hornet's first win. Everybody was gathered around the navy blue car, taking pictures as he smiled. There were screaming fans, news reporters trying to find out his secrets, and lots of girls who wished that they were his. Hudson had counted about 39 "Hudson, will you marry me?" posters within that crowed.

But he had his eyes on only one girl.

She looked cute, a little shy, maybe even a little scared of something, but it couldn't have been much, because she was looking straight at him as well. They're eyes connected threw the crowd, and he knew that he liked her a little. With that gorgeous super-light pink paint, what wasn't to like?

After all the pictures were done, the fans were ready to meet him. There were plenty who took more (yes, more) pictures with him, which after a while, made him blind from all the flashing lights. But when the girl he had been looking at came up, his site became clear again. "Now, please tell me you don't want a picture."

"Ha ha," said the girl, who had a very southern accent. "Well, I don't. I just wanted to, um, to get the chance to meet all the racecars, and I have to say you're my favorite."

"I get that a lot."

"Oh, do you?"

"You'd be surprised on how many actually ask me on dates."

"They do, do they?"

"I reject them, though. So anyway, what's your name?"

"Elle. Elle Lightyear."

"Elle Lightyear? Your father owns the tires company!"

"I know. It's pretty cool. I mean, free tires, and stuff, and then you get to go to all these fancy parties, and it's just fun."

"I know what you mean."

"Somehow I manage to not be in newspapers, but I'm sure _you_ never escape that."

"That's the price of fame."

"Well, I better go so that your next fan doesn't get bored waiting in line."

"Alright. Will you be at the Piston VIP party?"

"No, I can't. I have the Lightyear one to go to. I didn't get invited to the Piston one."

"You wanna get in?"

"How would I get in?"

"Well, the invitations say that you could bring a guest with you."

"Like a date."

"Do you _wish_ to be my date?"

Elle rolled her eyes and giggled. "Maybe." She turned around and drove on to the next line.

"Meet me right here when you're done, and I'll take you!"

"Be quiet, you stuck-up."

Both Hudson and Elle were smiling, probably not to wipe it off of their faces for a long time. Almost like love at first site.

----------

Hudson had been waiting a long time for Elle to finally come. The party would be starting pretty soon now. Every single car except for him was in that now abandoned winners circle. She wasn't anywhere in site.

Until, of course, she arrived.

"I thought you weren't going to come!" said Doc.

"Well," said Elle. "I had a lot to get through. Security kept wanting to go with me, and then my dad had to _pay_ them to leave me alone."

"I thought it went the opposite way."

"Not in my family. They follow us everywhere. I swear, I think that _they're_ the stalkers rather than the fans. I don't have any, but I'm sure you feel that way."

"Yeah, kind of."

As the silence crept in, Hudson got a little closer.

"What kind of girl do you take me for?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You're gonna try and kiss me, aren't you?"

"How did you know?"

"Well, I can just tell when guys want to do that. It isn't just because you want free tires or anything, is it?"

"Oh, no. I think I like you."

"Well, I think I like you, too. But not enough to kiss, yet."

They both stayed quiet.

"C'mon, we got a party to go to, right?"

Hudson smiled. "Sure do."

----------

"Hey, Hudson!"

"Oh, dear lord."

It couldn't be. No, not…

"Who's that?" asked Elle.

"That's Dina. She _used_ to be my girlfriend; until I found out she was cheating on me with a different racecar."

"Oh, I see. You still not over her?"

"Actually, it's the opposite."

"Good luck talking. I'm leavin' this table."

"Oh, no you aren't."

"Hudson, dearest!" said the bright-yellow 1950 Bentley MK VI Chapron Drophead Coupé. She pecked Doc on the fender, who looked very annoyed. "Why the annoyed face? You know I'm here because I love you."

"You go out with every single Piston Cup winner. Now, since I won, you love me again."

"Darling, I loved you from the start. That one time when I and that stupid racecar were kissing, he made it look like I was cheating."

"Either way I don't care. I'm pretty sure I've found somebody else."

Dina's eyes widened. "Somebody else? Who?"

"Well, she's right next to me, if you care to look to my left."

Dina gave Hudson an evil glare, and then looked to his left, to see somebody far more gorgeous than she was, though she would never admit it. Dina's eyes squinted as if she was replacing the devil. It made Elle want to scream and run away, but that would make her look like an idiot. "Uh… nice to, uh, to meet you?"

"Very well. You may have the greatest boyfriend in the world for now, but he'll be mine by tomorrow. You watch." Dina drove away with what would be her nose in the air. She was a spoiled brat.

"She, uh, she scares me."

"I can see why. But you're safe with me."

"She hates me."

"Yeah, but I don't. That's all that matters."

Elle couldn't help but smile. They pretty much knew by then that they wanted to kiss, but they didn't want their story to end up like "West Side Story," where the two cars in love said "I love you" the day the met. Life doesn't work like that. Elle kissed Hudson on the fender. That would be good enough for now. He turned around as Elle was turning from pink to red.

"No need to blush. I wanted to kiss you on the lips."

"Yeah, but you're _the_ Hudson Hornet. I can't help but to be a little embarrassed."

They both smiled, with it stuck on their faces. Elle gave Hudson her number, and they both left for home. There was nothing more to do but to think about what in the world would happen next.

----------

**2006, Radiator Springs' Shoppe**

"Anymore you willing to tell?"

"Oh, so I left you wanting more, eh? Well, too bad. I'll tell you more tomorrow. I have the appointment, remember?"

"You said that was an hour from now."

"Well, I'm going to leave ya hangin'! Now, would you like to buy something?"

Lightning looked around at all the magazines. Every single one was like a needle in his eyes. "No thanks. I'm good," he said in an unusual high-pitched voice. He drove to Flo's V8 Café, wondering if Sally was there, and of course, she wasn't.

"'Ey, Lightnin', yo!" said Ramone. "You saw what was on, like, every magazine, huh?"

"Total embarrassment, man," said Fillmore.

"Fillmore, you don't need to rub it in his face!" said Sarge.

"I know why you came," said Lexie.

"You do?" asked Lightning.

"Yep. Sally's at Wheel Well."

Lightning was in shock for a bit. "Thanks."

"No problem. It's obvious you're looking for her. Oh, and by the way, Harv called. He was wondering if you would go on some talk show called CARs. Have fun rejecting it."

"Why would I reject it?"

"Because they want you _and_ Sally."

Lightning's eyes were hurting from the amount of times he was his eyes _very_ wide. Nonetheless, he did it again. "They seriously want a double interview?"

"Yeah. Good luck telling her."

**Trouble is in the air, people! For almost everybody. For Lightning, Sally, Mater (he has yet to find out about those evil magazines), Doc (sort of), and maybe even Lexie! You'll find out once I get the rest of the chapters up what every single character's secret past is. Well, almost everybody.**

**Give me a review! Come on, you know you want to…**


	8. Mother Mother

**OMGOMGOMG there's gonna be a Cars short on the DVD! AH! Thank god, the DVD comes out six days before my birthday! This should be lots-o-fun, bribing my grandparents. I love being a geek.**

**So anyway, the story. I warn you, a lot of secrets from Sally will be revealed. The ending is going to say a LOT. So, enjoy!**

"Alright. So, all you have to do is tell him. 'Hey, Lightning? So, you know, I saw those magazines in Lizzie store. Makes you wanna start a real bonfire, huh? I mean, it's not going to affect us, is it?' No, that's bad. 'So, Lightning, you know those magazines that have you and Mater on them? Is it going to make us weaker than we are?' No, no no! I _need_ something reasonable to say. Alright. 'Hi, Lightning. You saw those magazines, didn't you? You know… the ones with you and Mater? The same exact picture? Well, I was kind of wondering-"

"Wondering what?"

Sally screamed for dear life to find that it was only Lightning. "Okay, you didn't hear me scream that loud, alright?"

"Sure. But what were you talking about? I mean, I know that you were talking about the picture on every single magazine in the world, which is why I came up, so that I could warn you. So, continue what you were saying."

"No, it's nothing important. I mean, we can stand through it, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"I mean, you don't… _like_ Mater like that, do you?"

"NO! I mean, no, I mean, yeah, that's what I mean."

"Just pushing your buttons!" said Sally with a smile.

"God, you're a good actress."

"Nope, I'm a lawyer."

"Lawyer, actress, I can't tell the difference."

"Well, I _was_ serious about how it won't affect us."

"Yeah, yeah, well, whatever."

"That's all you can say?"

"What?"

"_Whatever?_"

"Oh, well, uh…"

"Oh, forget it. We're fine, right?"

"I hope so." Lightning smiled. "Hey, um, listen, Harv called today."

Sally frowned. "Another interview, huh?"

"Well, yeah, but this one, it's different. They…"

"Well?"

"It's on a TV show, and…"

"WELL?"

"They, they kind of, they want both of us to do it."

"WHAT?"

Lightning closed his eyes, wishing he didn't just say that. "Yeah, well, I honestly think that… well… I don't know. We might as well do it."

"I guess so. So, anyway, I'm having some huge people over tomorrow."

"How huge?"

"Turns out Chick Hicks has decided to take a pit stop from his failing promotion of, well, who else?"

"Himself?"

"Yeah. And he feels the need to come here for some odd reason. So he's under the name of John Jones. I asked if it was some prank call. He said it was _something_ like that."

"And you just assumed."

"I asked if it was Chick Hicks, and he hung up."

"Nice. Well, next time he calls, tell him that that he can't go under an alias."

"I'll take note of that. I've realized that Tessa really isn't a problem at all."

"I know. She's, well, better than we expected."

The phone rang about two times before Sally said she would get the phone. She muttered to herself that it'd better not be Chick. "Hello, Sally Carrera, owner of both Wheel Well Inn and Cozy Cone Motel, both located in Radiator Springs, USA. How may I help you?" (A/N: I'd probably hang up right there. :p)

The other line had a woman on it. Obviously a rich one, with a nearly fake British accent. "Hello, I'd like a room at Wheel Well, best room there."

Lightning mouthed the words "Is it Chick?" to Sally while the lady was talking. Sally mouthed back "No" before the lady was finished speaking. "Oh, I'm sorry," Sally said out loud. "Wheel Well is full of vacancy."

While Lightning mouthed back "Who is it?" as the lady responded, "Well, I suppose I'll just stick with the Cozy Cone Motel. Any better room than another there?"

Sally quickly mouthed "I don't know" to Lightning before speaking again. "No, they're all equal."

"Alright," said the lady. There was a bit of a pause. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"I'm afraid not," responded Sally.

"My own daughter doesn't even recognize my voice."

Sally eyes shot open as fast as they could, with her in complete shock. "MOTHER! …wow, Mom, this is, this is-"

"Amazing, right? Sally, my darling daughter, I haven't talked to you in over two years. And it's just today when I find out that you moved out of Los Angeles more than a year ago!"

"How'd you find that out?"

"I was reading Parts magazine, and it was talking about a Lightning McQueen."

Sally looked over to Lightning, who looked as confused as heck. "Oh, did you…" Sally said.

"Well, that racecar said that _you_ were his girlfriend."

"Oh, uh, well, yeah, that might be true."

"We'll talk about it when I get there tomorrow, alright?"

"Tomorrow? That's…" Sally looked at Lightning again, who still looked as if he had just seen a dinosaur. "…great. Alright, bye." Sally hung up and let out a high-pitched "Help!" before driving over to Lightning. "Guess who called?"

Lightning was still very confused. "Um, you… mom, right?"

"Yeah, and she's coming over."

"Oh, is she? Without your dad?"

Sally bit her lip. "Well, yeah, without him."

"Why? They divorced?"

Sally kept on biting her lip until she thought it would dent it forever. She didn't want to say it, but… she had to. "Sort of…"

_What is it?_ was the one question in Lightning's mind. "Come, on Sal, tell me. I might as well know. We're getting married."

"Well, they didn't want to divorce. They had to. Ever since I was little, she told me he was living in Europe, because business was there and stuff, but they were still married. Well, one day I caught her kissing another guy. I told her about it that night and asked why she cheated on dad." Sally was holding back tears as she continued with her story. "She told me you can't cheat on a dead man."

_Oh, god, what am I supposed to say?_ replaced the question _What?_ in Lightning's mind. "…wow, Sally, I…" _Come on, I'm Lightning McQueen. Fastest racecar in the world, and I can't think of what to say about my fiancée?_ "…that's…terrible."

"It's fine. I guess I can't miss somebody I didn't know."

"Hey, you're fine, alright?"

"No, I'm not. I didn't tell my mom I moved here or anything, and now, now she knows that I'm with you, and, oh Lightning, she _hates_ racecars. I swear, if we had anything with numbers in our house besides phones, it would get burned."

"WHOA THERE! We?"

"Yeah, I have a brother. A really _really_ rich brother. Before I was born, he got half of my dad's money when he died, so he created a business, and it exploded. Everybody's in love with Dinoco."

"Your _brother_ owns Dinoco? And I didn't know this?"

"Yeah. If you see a 2000 Aston Martin Vanquish with the licenses plate "X5OKI38, that's him."

"I could've had Dinoco _before_ had I known! Why didn't you tell me?"

"That would've only made you like me more, and I thought you were the biggest jerk on the face of the earth! And then I was gonna tell you, but when you rejected them at that Piston Cup race, I figured it didn't… matter."

"Well, I, I guess it doesn't, it's just a little crazy, because first I find out Doc has a secret past, now you do."

"Everybody in this town has a secret past, Lightning. I'm sure you do."

This was true. "Well, yeah, I…" Lightning snapped back into reality and remembered that his past was too bad to believe. He didn't want anybody to know. Not even Sally, even if he loved her. "Sal, I gotta go. Love you!" He sped out of the Cozy Cone, making sure Sally didn't look upset through his brand new rear-view mirrors that Doc had installed recently. She didn't look upset, just confused.

Sally stared at the door where Lightning left, and looked as confused as Lightning had looked when her mom called. "I… love you, too." She drove behind the desk of the Wheel Well and sighed. Her _mother_ was coming the very next day. She loathed her mother for forcing her into law, making her work at Hummer and Plymouth Co., supporting her boss in having a major crush on her.

Her boss…

The Plymouth side of the company was where Sally worked. You either worked for Hummer or Plymouth, and unfortunately for Sally, she got Plymouth. Oh, she hated that name. She hated _him_. He had been nothing but inconsiderate with her, and that wasn't even the beginning. In the beginning he was nice, maybe even a little flirty. He _was_ a handsome car. And not to mention one of the highest paid lawyers in the country. But after a while, he was cruel. Even though all her busy life was going on, she always had her good friends.

Her friends…

There was Claire, Hailey, and Alex, all great girls to be with, no doubt. They were the ones who had helped her through the one demotion Sally experienced when first starting and Hummer and Plymouth, breaking up with her now three year ex, Harold, and when she finally decided to leave L.A. She had talked to Alex last. It was the night that Lightning had come and destroyed the town. She had told her that they all missed her, including Jason.

_Wait a minute…_

She had left Jason so she could escape from the city life. Jason was her boyfriend. A very steady boyfriend. She had loved him, and he had loved her. He was amazing to her, everything she wanted. He wasn't the richest guy around, but that didn't matter. He was as great as Lightning. Maybe even…

_No, not better! Nobody's better than Lightning. I've moved on._

She told Jason that night she had to go find something she'd never had. Freedom. She finally had it. _And_ she had Lightning. After suffering what she had been through, nothing was better than Radiator Springs at the moment. There was only one thing she was upset about.

What on earth was Lightning talking about when he said he had a secret past?

**So everybody has a secret past now, not just Doc! Yes, Doc still does. No, Mater doesn't (well, let me think about that, actually). Yes, Lightning has a secret past that right now only I know of! Mwah ha ha ha. I love messing with you minds.**

**(Swings pocket watch around) You want to give me a review.**


	9. I'm Gonna Kill You

**LMAO! Basil-Ovelby, my god, you ROCK! I was smiling reading your review. That's _rare_. Well, either way, everybody's reviews are awesome! I love them to death! And actually ****ChibiJaime**** noticed something I didn't. That yellow-ish car with the horns is in fact the owner of Dinoco. Yes, yes, 'tis true! But there is so much more of that Dinoco stuff that you don't quite know yet, that nobody knows yet! Mwahaha!**

**1951, Lightyear Mansion, Beverly Hills, CA**

"Daddy, please!"

"You ain't goin' anywhere with this Hudson Hornet, Elle! Hear?"

"Daddy, I'm old enough to take care of myself, without my father always driving around, spying on me, all that fun stuff."

"Since when did I spy on you?"

"How did you find out that I gave him a kiss on the fender?"

"Well, I, uh, besides that!"

"There is no 'besides that.' I'm goin' out with him tomorrow, whether you tell me I can or can't!"

"You can't, he doesn't support the family brand!"

"Daddy, just because Hudson doesn't wear Lightyear tires, does NOT mean I can't go on a date with him."

"You called him Hudson! That's it, young lady. As long as you live under this roof, you'll go by my rules!"

"Then I won't be with you and mama for long. Carissa told me she needed a roommate, anyway. I'll be out of here by tomorrow, so that I can have a life!" Elle started driving away, upset that her father wouldn't approve of Hudson.

"Elle, you are not moving out!"

"YES I AM!"

----------

Out of all the thing the Fabulous Hudson Hornet had gone through, with Elle, it was this feeling he has never felt before. It was excitement, but nerve-wracking. Fast-paced, but so slowed down. Everything he imagined, but still so different from it.

_Love._

It could've possibly been love. Every single time he thought he had it, it slipped away. _Not this time, _Hudson though. _This time, I'm sure it'll work. I'm sure._

He drove a little while, stopping every now and then to take a look at the people passing by. There were two people (rather, cars), boy and girl, that caught his eye. This is what Hudson was thinking about.

He just had to wait a bit, was all.

All the sudden, he heard a piercing scream, followed by the screeching tires of somebody who was going about 30 MPH stopping immediately. After a couple of gasps, the southern girl managed to say "Roads are for driving! You know that?"

"Well, sorry! I just stopped for a bit!"

"If you're gonna stop for a bit, use the sidewalk! Hear?"

"Oh, I hear, alright. Now, you _see_ this!" He turned around, showing his side that said "#51 The Fabulous Hudson Hornet" on it. "Don't you have any respect?"

He didn't get a response.

"You still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still here, alright."

"Planning on talking any time soon?"

"I am… SO sorry."

He turned around, facing the girl. "Yeah, you should…" _Oh, great._ The person who had just argued with was… Elle. _Well, how was I supposed to know? I'm sure she didn't know either!_ "…be."

As the silence crept into both of their minds, they were both thinking the same thing. _What the heck am I supposed to say without making a fool out of myself?_

"Well…" started Elle. "That was, um, weird."

"Yeah, weird."

As the silence overcome both Elle and Hudson, they both wondered what this was. Was it hate? Maybe a certain likeness they had no idea about? Or… was it…

_Love._

It was a little early for both of them, seeing as how they had only seen each other once before, but love at first site was becoming more and more believable by the second.

"So," said Elle, attempting to start a little conversation. "I need to go. I'm going to my friend's house."

"Are you?"

Elle put on a smile when she heard that. There he was. Hudson was back. "Yeah, but I guess I would be early anyway, so um, I'll go with you."

"There we go. That's just what I wanted to hear."

"So, you wanna get on the sidewalk?"

"Might be a good idea."

Elle giggled. "Alright. So, guess what?"

"Alright, what?"

"I said guess!"

"Well, I'm too lazy to guess."

"And this is coming out of the Hudson Hornet."

"My racing life is something very different from my personal life."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, up on that racetrack, I'm a different person. Winning is my only goal. But then, when I'm off, I win nothing."

"You don't get anything from anybody?"

"See, I don't own a company. I don't get as much money as you do."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You have everything. A family who actually supports you, your own room, friends-"

"My parents do _not_ support me. They hate you just because you don't buy our tires because they're too expensive. I'm moving out of my own room tomorrow so I can have a real life like you are, and my friends, you don't have any friends?"

Hudson didn't talk back. All he did was put on a sly smile that only told Elle that he was up to something.

"What are you doing?"

"Just staring at you, my dear." He turned around so his face was facing hers, almost to the point where they're lips were touching.

Elle's eyes got wide, as she realized that he was going to try and kiss her again. "Okay, the first time you tried, you weren't this creepy."

"Creepy? You calling me a creep?"

"No, I just, when you said that, it scared me a little, is all."

"What's scary about me liking you?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you weren't creepy, just, it's a little weird. I mean, it's weird how you're coming closer and closer and I'm not moving away, and it's weird how usually I always give in to my dad, but this time, I didn't want to, so I didn't, and then it's weird how ever since I've met you, all I've thought about is you. I mean, _is_ that weird? What is it?"

All Hudson could do was smile at all that she said. It meant 1. She liked him. And 2. He could finally kiss her. He closed the gap between their lips, making the kiss as meaningful as possible. He didn't want to make-out with her, but he didn't want it to just be a little brush that almost didn't matter. From the second he pulled away, he knew. It _was_ love at first site.

Every second Hudson was kissing her, Elle was in heaven. No guy had ever kissed her like this before. When he pulled away, she was left in awe. Every single second of that kiss had been amazing, but the stare that Hudson gave her afterwards led her into smiling as wide as her smile could get.

"So," said Hudson. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Okay," said a nearly out of breathe Elle.

"Goodnight."

"Night!" Elle turned around, smiling every second on the way to her friend's house, wondering how she was blessed enough to deserve a guy like Hudson.

----------

**2006, Radiator Springs' Shoppe**

"So, how come Sally and I weren't that fast?"

"Don't ask me! Ask yourself, hotrod."

"Alright, fine. So, anyway, thanks, Lizzie."

"No problem, sexy!"

Lightning was annoyed with Lizzie from the second he met her, but this was getting ridiculous. She was old enough to be his grandma, and she called him her 'sexy hotrod' nonstop! "Don't call me that. Please."

"Howdy, Lizzie!"

Lightning turned around, to find that it was Mater, along with Lexie, for no particular reason. _No, no, no! What am I supposed to do about the magazines!_

"So, Lightning," said Lexie. "How was Sally? She seemed a little, upset after she finally came back down from Wheel Well yesterday after you talked to her."

Lightning sighed. "She's freaked out about her mother coming over. And Chick is coming, too, which isn't the best."

"Tell me about it." Lexie looked over at the magazine rack. "Oh… wow. That's…" Lexie bursted out into laughter while Mater was confused about what Lexie was laughing at.

"Hey, Lightnin'," said Mater. "Between you and me, I don't know what we laughin' about."

"Well," said Lightning. "If you look over to where the magazines are…"

Mater slowly turned so that his body was facing the magazine rack, and his eyes shot up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. "HOLEH SHOOT!"

Lexie, after her laughing-fest, finally managed to speak. "You and Mater on every single one of these covers… KISSING! Talk about embarrassing moments. Let's see what the covers say. 'Lightning McQueen – GAY?' 'The Biggest Shocker since the King's Crash!' 'Why He Said No to Dinoco'. That last one is funny!"

"Lexie…"

"Yes?"

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Lightning sped over to Lexie, who was scared for dear life. She yelled bloody murder, and drove out of Lizzie's store as fast as she could, as Lightning wondered how in the world those magazines got that picture. Sure paparazzi were everywhere, but why then? There?

Little did anybody know that it wasn't the paparazzi at all, but indeed, the reason why Lightning was in Radiator Springs in the first place.

**Hey, guess what? My mom wants a car exactly like Sally! I'm so trying to convince her. But it isn't working. She tells me that she wants it when she's, like, fifty or something. FIFTY! That car will be thrown into dumps by then! Well, anyway, there was a car on the highway that had the most frigging awesome tailfin! (Goes on and on forever about the sweet tailfin)**

**Tailfin, tailfin, GIVE ME A REVIEW, tailfin, tailfin…**


	10. Bonfire!

**Oh my god! I was passing our hospital and I SAW SALLY! Okay, so the car didn't have eyes, and maybe it was silver, not blue, but still, IT WAS SALLY! I wanted to run up to it a hug it! Well, for now, I have my sister's remote control Sally. (Hugs fake Sally) So anyway, to the story!**

"Guido, stop-a messing up-a de tires!"

"Mi non dite di smettere di scompigliare su quelle gomme!"

"It's my-a tire store, not yours!"

"Migliorate siete felici voi parlate italiano, anche."

"What do you-a mean by that?"

As this conversation was going on, Lightning and Sally were busy taking every single magazine from Lizzie's into a huge pile outside, making sure not a single magazine strayed away from the pile. Lexie and Mater watched them in their enjoyment, laughing at the fact that nobody knew what they were doing. This was going to be one huge bonfire.

"So," said Lexie. "When do I set the match?"

"Why can't I do the match?" asked Mater.

"Well… see, I'm a little more trustworthy when it comes to fire. You have how much experience with fire?"

"None."

"Exactly."

"Almost done, guys!" said Sally. She turned around to Lightning. "This will SO lower my RPMs."

"Your RPMs are low enough," said Lightning. "What needs to go down is the fact that you and I can't get married in this town. We've gotta do something."

"Maybe we _shouldn't_ get married."

Lightning's heart shattered as soon as he heard that. "Are you breaking up with me?"

"What? NO! I would, I would never. It's just, maybe this is a sign. A sign that it's too soon."

"_Do_ you wanna marry me?"

"Of course I do, Lightning. I mean, you're everything to me. But I think we might be rushing things a bit."

"Doc'll come to his senses."

"You sure about that? Doc's a rock, Lightning."

"But he can take a bet, can't he?"

"A bet? You're not gonna race him again, are you?"

"No, but it has to do with the Piston Cup. If I win, I get to marry you."

"WHAT? That's too much of a gamble. What happens if you don't win?"

"If I don't, then I'll find a way. Don't worry, we'll be able to be together."

"I love it when you're like this."

"I love _you_." Lightning gave Sally a little kiss and continued moving magazines from Lizzie's store to the pile outside. All was good. For now.

But that was all about to change.

"SALLY!"

Sally recognized that voice, and it was terrifying to hear it again. No, not here! Not now! She turned around to see the bright-yellow 1950 Bentley MK VI Chapron Drophead Coupé come right towards her. She couldn't escape her past now. "Hi… mom."

"Sally, dearest, what are you doing, with all of these magazines? They're the reason we in LA live!"

"That's the reason we're burning them. Set the match, Lexie!"

Lexie started laughing maniacally as to make the impression that she was some evil scientist. It actually scared Mater a bit, because he thought that Lexie was starting to be possessed by the devil. He drove around in circles, screaming "It's the ghost light!" as soon as Lexie put the match on the magazines. It was good feeling for everybody. Well, almost.

"Setting a match to magazines is a sin."

"So what? It makes good heat."

"Who needs heat in this wasteland?"

"WASTELAND? Mom, this is my home."

"Home? This place is a dump! And that Cozy Cone is a _motel_? Motels are not acceptable in our family, Sally, you know that."

"To you, _nothing_ is acceptable in our family!"

"Not everything, but racing is, too, and here you are dating a racecar!"

"Just because he's a racecar doesn't mean he's not a good person!"

"Sally, racecars are terrible people! They're the reason that your generation is living such horrible lives."

"At least my generation is open-minded! Give him a chance, mom!"

"Give this _idiot_ a chance? I beg to differ."

"You've never met him!"

"I can tell a person by their picture. You were better off with your boss."

"My _boss_ was 30 years older than me! He's old enough to be my dad!"

"He was a fine man who treated you well."

"Mom, I'm in love, alright? You told me a long time ago that when you're in love, you're in love. Nothing you can do about it, right? Of course right!"

As Sally was saying her last sentence, she could here some type of rap music playing, thinking it was Lexie at first, but then saw four cars with amazingly bright colors, except for that one orange one, as seeing his paint was nearly worn. No, it couldn't be them. Not them again. And with somebody else, too. Some guy with a mustache.

As Lightning was finishing putting the last of the magazines in the bonfire, Lexie had stopped laughing like a villain from Superman and just stared at Wingo. Who _was_ that hottie? Whoever he was, Lexie knew that she wanted him. She put on those eyes that said "come hither", but soon realized that was too obvious. A smile would be good when he looked at her. Lightning saw Sally talking to her mother, and almost figured that it would be a bad idea to go over there, but he had to introduce himself. He wanted to seem the least bit polite to his almost mother-in-law. He drove over, thinking quickly of what he should say to her. "Hey, Sal, so who's this?"

"Well…" started Sally. "This is my, my mother."

"Um, nice to meet you."

Sally's mom gave Lightning a glare that wasn't that hard to define. It was a look that Lightning had loathed every since he was a little kid, as he got it a lot. It reminded him too much of his past. "…_okay_." He turned to Sally. "Um, so, we started the fire before I got the last bit in, but somehow, it's in."

"Good job."

Sally and Lightning were both confused, seeing how that was a man's voice, because Sally hadn't moved her mouth at all. They looked over Sally's mom's rear-view mirrors, to see the Delinquent Road Hazards _and_ Chick Hick, Chick in the middle, who stood out so much, it wasn't even funny. He looked ridiculous. "So, Lightning, you know, I told these four to catch you at an embarrassing moment, and oh boy, did they catch you."

Lightning narrowed his eyes on Chick. This wasn't the first time Chick had hired these four to do his work for him. There was one time a few months back when he hired them to get his stuff from Mack. But compared to what he did now, that was absolutely _nothing_. "Chick, I may be the number one victim of you, but somehow, I keep winning those races. What do you think about _that_?"

"I'm not the one who kissed a rusty old tow truck."

Lightning growled. He didn't want to make a bad impression on Sally's mother, but this was too much. He revved up his engine as loud as he could, as to give Chick a warning to leave him alone, or life wouldn't get any better for him.

"Oh, what, go ahead. Rev up you engine. So anyway, how is that tow truck of yours? I heard rumors that you two had some… fun afterwards."

"That… is… IT!" Lightning was about to drive Chick away, if it weren't for Sally pulling up in front of him.

"He's not worth it, Lightning," said Sally. She sounded as if she was a little nervous about how it would turn out had he done it. Well, a lot would've happened. Lightning probably would've gotten really badly injured, and unable to race the Piston Cup, therefore, Lightning and Sally wouldn't be able to get married. Or something like that. "Just leave him alone. There's better things we can do."

"…better?"

"Yeah, like, check him in." With every word, she winked, as if to tell him of the mischief she was up to, which Lightning didn't get at first, but then realized that she was up to something.

"Yeah, that's right, _John Jones_. We'll take you straight to your room."

"More like race you to your room."

"Race?"

"Yeah. See, here's the thing. There's only one room left at the Wheel Well, and it's full of cobwebs and dust. But you see, I live in the little penthouse. We'll give you _that_ room rather than the old undecorated one, if you win the race."

"Yeah, and don't cry after you lose to me, alright?"

"Oh, he's not racing you. He's racing _me_."

"_You_? Are you insane?"

"No, just a little crazy. And boy, do I love it!"

"Sally!" said Sally's mom.

"Mother, forget it, alright? I'm racing him. Unless he _wants_ the old room."

Chick narrowed his on Sally, thinking that Lightning was right, for once. How was this girl going to beat him? He was the Chick Hicks, the (second) fastest racer in the Piston Cup! "You're on, sweetheart."

**Now, my question, I think Sally _is_ faster than Chick. She's almost as fast as Lightning according to Disney Adventures. But there will be trouble on that track; **

**that much I'll tell you. Now, what about Lexie and Wingo? I'm awesome, aren't I? Thought so.**

**Now, since you're here and stuff, you'd like to give a review, right?**


	11. The Lexus & Wingo Parkin' 'Neath a Tree

**I saw Sally again! It was black, and a convertible, but still, it was amazing! It's a Sally Nation, people! Oh, I love America. Alright. Because I'm weird, I've decided to put a disclaimer in here. In all my stories, actually. I have no idea why. I just will. Why do I need them, though? Eh, whatever. I'll do it.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Cars, I would die. Guess what? I'm alive.**

"So what if I've gotten ahead of myself? I can do it."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. He's the slowest guy on that track! I'm shocked he won last year."

"Just be careful out there, alright? I don't want my fiancée getting hurt out there by some jerk like Chick Hicks."

Sally giggled. "Your fiancée is going to be absolutely fine. I can do this, alright?"

"Alright, I hope so. Love you."

"Love you, too." Sally drove away, thinking about what Lightning had said. Was she really going to get hurt? He called her "sweetheart". That was a little uncomfortable, but not by much. She could win this.

And if not, it could've cost her a lot.

----------

"Yo DJ!" said Boost.

"Yo!"

"We got a Porsche _and_ a Lexus, you realize that?"

"You guys, leave them alone, alright? Don't you two like the twins?" said Wingo, while looking at the Lexus. Dear lord, she was hott. But she seemed a little more than just a person you'd want to mess with every two days. Something a little more…

"Yeah, Wingo, we like messin' with them. Don't you?" said DJ.

"Not really. They annoy me. The Porsche is way too old for that, and the Lexus…"

"Oh, no, don't tell me. You like the Lexus!" said Boost.

"Let's imitate that rusty tow-truck that Lightning kissed!" said Snot Rod.

Boost and DJ joined Snot Rod in the chanting. "The Lexus and Wingo, parkin' 'neath a tree! K-I-S… uh… somthin' somthin' B!"

"Ahem."

Every single DRH (Delinquent Road Hazard) turned around and spotted the very Lexus they were talking about. They could've tried to do her, but they were a little scared by the tone of her voice.

"The name is Lexie. Yeah, take away the "the" and the "us" in "Lexus," and add an "ie" at the end, and you got my name. Next time, get it right, okay?"

Everybody nodded.

"Good. So, any of you got money?"

"DUH!"

"Shut up, Snot Rod."

"Sorry, DJ."

"HEY!" screamed Lexie. "This isn't a fight. This is a bet. The bet is that Sally will win. Somebody wanna bet with me?"

Everybody was silent. Sally probably _was_ going to win. Chick was the slowest thing in the world compared to Lightning McQueen, and his girlfriend was pretty quick, too. Nobody want to make a bet that they knew would lose. Except for one.

"Yeah, I'll bet you."

"Alright… uh… name?"

"Wingo."

Lexie smirked. Wingo. That was funny.

"What?"

"Nothing. That's just the WEIRDEST name I've ever heard."

"And I thought you were hott."

"Oh, did you?"

"Yeah, dead serious. That's why these three were singing that "The Lexus and Wingo" song."

"Of course that's why. Either way, we'll make this our meeting spot and both of us have the money, and then whoever wins keeps the money. Now, since I'm more trustworthy than you, I'll make sure that it's not fake money before incase I win."

"I'm not trustworthy?"

"Bad boys. They don't even know how bad they are."

"So," Wingo started get closer and whisper like a sexy movie star would in an R-rated film, which made Lexie's face feel hotter and hotter by the second. "I'm… bad, huh?"

"…yeah…bad…real bad…"

"Sorry. I freaked you out, didn't I?"

"How old _are_ you?"

"Just about to turn 15."

"I just turned 13."

"Whoa, you're young."

"Listen, you were hitting on SALLY. She's way _older_ than you, which is pretty much worse."

"Yo Wingo!" said DJ. "Give her the money and get away from her, before you become emotionally attached!"

"I'll be there in a second." He turned back to Lexie. "So… we'll meet right back here after the race?"

"Yeah, sure. Um, nice talking to you… Wingo." Lexie smirked again. Wingo. What a stupid name.

"What's your name again?"

Lexie looked straight up at Wingo with eyes that said "Are you kidding me?" "My name is _Lexie_."

"Right, I'll take note. See ya around."

Lexie smiled. Step one, complete. "Bye." She drove away and squealed with happiness. This was the most exciting thing ever. Everybody was at the starting line, waiting for the Sheriff to come and announce the rules. Mater was getting him. "Sally Sally Sally!" Lexie somehow managed to squeeze in between Lightning and Sally with the huge smile on her face. "Guess what!"

Sally looked at Lexie, and then looked at Lightning. How in the world did she squeeze in between them? "…What's your spaz about?"

"It's about that Wingo guy. The purple and green one. Oh. My. God. He's so hott."

"…Is he…"

"Yeah! And he and I were pretty much flirting. He's pretty nice."

"…Really…"

"Hey, why are you shocked?"

"Because you managed to get between me and Lightning!"

Lexie looked over to Lightning. Dear lord, that expression on his face made Lexie scared for dear life. "…Um. I'll be going now." Lexie backed up on to the grass right next to the road as the Sheriff and Mater pulled up to the finish line.

"Howdy, Lightnin'!"

"Hey there, Mater."

"So anyway, 'bout those magazines we burned, all we have now is the ashes, which we's plannin' on puttin' in a coffin er sumthin'."

"Sounds great… So, um, you watching the race?"

"Nope. I'm going over tuh Lizzie's to dish some more dirt on this Elle girl fer ya. And I have tuh practice my racin' fer my deemolition derby."

"Why are you finding out about Elle?"

"Cuz yer my bes' friend. It's the least I can do after that heleecopter ride yuh gave me 'bout a year ago."

"Actually, why don't you go to Doc's garage? There's bound to be something."

"Okey-dokey, then. I'll jus' try not tuh get caught. See ya, Lightnin'!"

"Later, Mater." As soon as Lightning turned away, he put on a weird face. Later and Mater rhymed. He hated rhymes.

"Boy, are you racin' with them?"

Lightning looked at Sheriff. "Well…" Lightning turned to Sally. "If she let's me."

Sally, who had heard absolutely but "If she let's me," turned around with a confused look on her face. "If I let you what?"

"If you let me race with you two. And maybe I wouldn't race, I'd just make sure that you or him wouldn't cheat or something. I mean, you probably wouldn't, but Chick, oh yeah."

"Hey!" screamed Chick. "Just because I'm racing your girlfriend-"

"Fiancée."

"Fiancée," Chick said mockingly. "Just because I'm racing you _fiancée_ doesn't mean you have to get all protective."

"I'm afraid I have to, Chick. You bend more rules than the rule book even states. Let's not forget last year."

"I won that year fair and square."

"I would've won if you hadn't nearly killed the King."

"How many relationships are you in, Lightning? This Porsche, the rusty old tow-truck, and now the King."

"Do you even know what the word fiancée means?"

"You're getting married to the King?"

"NO! To Sally! In your mind, 'the Porsche.'"

"You have no idea how funny it is to see you mad, Lightning. Keep it up, and might wanna have a…" Chick changed his tone of voice and got close to Lightning. "…relationship, too."

Lightning's angry face turned into something that made anybody know that something really weird was going on. "You confuse me sometimes."

"Do I? Well, either way…" Chick changed back to his normal angry tone of voice. "You _aren't_ going to be the pace car or whatever."

"Not the pace car, just simply making sure neither of you cheat."

"Fine, then!"

"Fine!"

"Now, wait!" said Sally. "I haven't even said if you could do it or not."

"Come on, Sally," said Lightning. "I don't want him hurting you out there."

"Alright, fine. Let's just go."

"Alright. This will not even be a lap-race," started the Sheriff. "You will start at this very spot, and go straight to the Wheel Well Inn. First one there wins. There will be no bumpin', no cheatin', no spittin', no bitin', no road-ragin', no mammon, no oil slicks, no pushin', no shovin', no back-stabbin', no road-hoggin', and no lollygaggin'."

"How the heck am I supposed to remember all that?" asked Chick.

"If you don't, Lightnin' will. Luigi!"

Luigi and Guido pulled up in their famed Ferrari gear, smiles stuck on their faces. "Pit stop!" Guido said.

"What the… who are these people?" asked Chick.

"This is my-a nephew, Guido," said a very proud Luigi. "Do you-a wish to have a pit stop today?"

"We're just tryin' to get on with the race, okay, puny?"

"Fine. Race-a your way. On your mark! Get ready! One for the money! Two for the show! Wait-a, Lightning? Are you-a racing, too?"

"I'm just making sure nobody cheats," stated Lightning.

"Ah, I see. Then it _is_ two for the show! Three to get ready! And four to, ah, I'm breathing this time, GO!"

**Cliff-hanger, eh? I used to do those all the time. You better be glad I don't do it as much. He he. So, Lexie and Wingo, huh? I'm so cool for putting those two together. And now Mater's on a mission. FUN! But be scared. The next chapter is sort of long, and a huge surprise.**

**Well, anyway, put in your bets to guess who's going to win the race! Tell me that in your _review_.**


	12. The Ring of Fire

**I have a song stuck in my head. Have you guys head SexyBack? AH! I'm in love with the song for some odd reason. I'm bringin' sexy back. _Yeah!_ Them other boys don't know how to act. _Yeah!_ Ha. I'm weird. Anyway, the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: Pixar owns Cars. I'm not Pixar. But I should be.**

"SALLY!"

Obviously, Chick had _not_ remembered the rules. The Sheriff had clearly stated that there would be no bumping! And definitely no bumping off the road! Lightning raced over to the edge of the road that Sally fell off of. She looked _horrible_. It made Lightning get a little shiver in his gas tank. No, she couldn't be… "SALLY! ANSWER ME!"

Every time Sally attempted to get up and talk, she'd find her voice was ruined, and would fall right back down. She felt too sore to get up. She tried to move, but it wouldn't do anything. She almost felt dead.

Daringly, Lightning had the urge to go down there for her, but how would he do that safely?

He would jump, that's what! He backed up until his rear was almost touching the wall of rock, and then sped forward until he reached the edge of the cliff. He bounced down, and then up right before he was about to fall off of the cliff, and landed without any damages. He looked over to Sally. Right behind her was a ramp! _God, I'm stupid._ He drove over to Sally as quickly as he could. "Sally, Sally, you okay?"

Sally shook her head. Heck no she wasn't! She couldn't move, talk… she could barely do anything!

"Do you think you'll be alright?"

Sally shrugged. She honestly had no idea if she was going to make it or not. With the tears streaming down, she felt like she couldn't save herself.

"Should I take you Doc's?"

Sally nodded. She would feel much better if she was in the hands of somebody who knew what they were doing.

Lightning gave her a little nudge. "Hey, you'll be fine, alright? I'm always here for you." He gave her a tiny kiss on the fender and went behind her so he could push her up the ramp. While it hurt her, it was the only thing he could do. Hopefully she would be okay, like Lightning told her she would be.

----------

It was a very difficult task, but somehow, Lightning managed to get Sally to cross the starting line again. Everybody gasped when they saw her, and her mother bursted out into tears.

"Holeh shoot, Lightnin'! What happened tuh Miss Salleh?" asked Mater.

"What do you think, Mater?" said Lexie. "Aw, poor Sally! Chick bumped her, didn't he?"

'Yeah," said Lightning. "I'm glad I decided to come along."

"You have nothing to be proud of!" declared Sally's mother. "Look at her! She'll never be herself again!"

"If it weren't for me, I bet she'd be dead in an hour!"

"She wouldn't have even raced if it weren't for you! She's become, become-"

"Independent?"

"That is it! I'm leaving here as soon as my daughter's okay and she's coming with me!"

"Oh, no I'm not!"

Everybody was in shock to hear Sally's voice. She was okay! She'd be fine! Hopefully. Her voice sounded like a broken record. The scratches seemed to be on her throat, too.

"Sally, darling, you're my daughter and I can take you with me if I want to."

"I moved so I could get away from the life in LA, away from my boss, away from YOU!"

"Do you have any idea what you're talking about Sally? This man here-"

"Saved my life. And I love him, mom. We _are_ getting married and nobody is going to stop us."

"_MARRIED?_ Sally, you're crazy! You'll _never_ live up to your brother."

"When did my brother come into this?"

"Your brother cares about other's needs."

"I wish I had a mom that actually cared about _me_! Do you know what it's like to try to impress somebody, but just because you don't live up to be perfect, which nobody is, by the way, they treat you like trash that just got thrown off the street. Is that right?" Sally wanted to cry in front of everybody, but she was showing enough vulnerably already. She drove off, and once she was sure that nobody was there, she started crying her heart out. It felt as if her mother just wanted every single aspect of her family to be perfect, and that she would be the burden of the family, as she had been from day one.

"Sally!"

It seemed like Lightning couldn't leave her alone for ten seconds, even though she needed him. "Lightning, I'm fine, alright?"

"You sure about that? You realize that you actually won since he bumped you."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I told you he'd cause trouble on that track." He paused for a second and got closer to her. "You alright? Everybody could hear you crying."

"I'm fine, seriously. I'm just a little upset."

Lightning nudged Sally with a smile. He saw her wince, so he softened up the nudge. "No need to be upset. You don't have to be mommy's little girl. I don't know why, but I doubt she's your mom at all."

Sally let out a giggle. "Oh, she is, trust me."

"Come on; let's go to Doc's to fix you up."

----------

_I fell in to a burnin' ring of fire_

_I went down, down, down, but the flames just went higher_ (A/N: I love the movie Walk the Line, so that's how I even know who Johnny Cash is.)

Old time radio playing, nobody in the room, it was days like this when he had time to think about things. Everyday things that actually mattered. Like, a roof above your roof (A/N: Ha ha ha. Roof above roof.), or oil to drink, or people that cared about you no matter what.

No matter how hard he tried, he just wasn't meant to have people that cared about you no matter what. Lightning didn't care about him at all until he was found to be the Fabulous Hudson Hornet. And Elle… she had _left_ him after his crash. One little crash and she was gone. He had loved her. And he though she loved him. But he was wrong. Oh, he was _very_ wrong. She was just like Dina had been. Only for the winners, not the losers.

Almost like Lightning _was_.

When he thought about Lightning and Elle at the same time, he realized how much Lightning reminded him of Elle. They had the exact same eye color, and the same smile and all those other little things that everybody notices when they say that people look just like you.

But those things had to be coincidences, not genetics.

"Doc!"

Doc turned around to find that Lightning and Sally were side by side as usual. The only different thing was that Sally was very badly beat up. So beat up, in fact, that it was worse than anything he'd ever seen. Worse than… Elle looked like. "What happened here?"

"She challenged Chick into a race, and he bumped her off a cliff," said Lightning.

Doc nodded his head. She looked terrible. The fact that she was even able to smile like she did was a shocker. "You hurting at all?"

"You think?" said Sally. "Plus my mom hates me, which is actually normal."

"What's your mom's name, anyway?" asked Lightning.

"Dina."

Doc turned around at that name. Dina. Oh, dear lord, Dina.

Lightning kept on talking to Sally. "Ugh, I think I hate her. Bright-yellow. It blinds me."

Sally giggled, and then coughed a little. It hurt her throat to laugh. "She got her headlight redone about three years ago. (A/N: That would be plastic surgery in the Cars world)"

"Seriously?"

Sally nodded. "She's gotten so much work done."

"Sally," said Doc. "Your mom doesn't happen to be a Bentley, does she?"

Sally put on a weird face. How in the heck did he know that? "…Yeah, that's her."

"Oh, god." Doc remembered her fairly well. "Sally, your mother used to date me."

"WHAT?"

"But she cheated on me with another racecar."

"She _hates_ racecars! How could she've dated you and another?"

"She's dated more than two, Sally. Ten, actually. And I'm sure she's told you that she had a husband that died."

"Of course she has."

"Well, none of that's true. She never had a husband, and your father never died." Doc paused for a bit. Usually, he kept secrets, but he couldn't. Sally just looked so… awful. "I know who your dad is. I can… I can tell you if you want."

"Doc, you're not sounding like yourself. You're usually one to keep things in."

"Usually, yes. But it's something you need to know."

Sally soaked up all the information she had been given. After all these years, her mother was living a lie! She never had a husband or anything! It was no wonder that Sally and her brother looked absolutely nothing alike. "Doc, I don't think I'm ready to know who my dad is yet. I just, it's been a rough day. A very confusing, terrible day."

Doc nodded, understandably. "Now, let's check out the damage."

"Do you want me to stay?" Lightning whispered to Sally.

"Nah, I'll be fine," said Sally. "Love ya"

"Love you, too." Lightning pecked Sally on the fender before he left the room. He let out a sigh. It was only four days until the Piston Cup, and Sally had just nearly died. How come something weird always happened before the race that would always be the most important race of the season?

"Hey, you!"

Lightning turned around and saw three girls, one purple 2002 Cadillac Cien, one green 2002 Lamborghini Murciélago 6.2**2002** **Lamborghini** Murcielago 6.2**2002** **Lamborghini** Murcielago 6.2**2002** **Lamborghini** Murcielago 6.2**2002** **Lamborghini** Murcielago 6.2, and one white 2002 BMW Z8. They all looked like the kind of girls that the DRHs would mess with, only Sally's age. "What do you want?" said Lightning

"You're Lightning McQueen, right?" asked the white car.

"That's my name," said Lightning.

"Yes! We're in the right town! I told you, Alex," said the purple car.

"Nothing wrong with being cautious, right?" said the green car, Alex. She turned to Lightning. "Do you know where Sally is?"

Lightning put on a confused face. They obviously knew Sally, but how? "Um, yeah. She's in the doctor's office."

"Aw," said the white car. "That stinks."

"Did something bad happen to her?" asked Alex.

"Kind of…" said Lightning. "She was in a little race, and she got pushed off of a cliff."

"Whoa, that's… bad…" said the white car. "She was in my prayers already, but now she's in them two times."

"Hailey, you're crazy," said the purple car, who was now the only unidentified one. "She can't be in yours two times! She was in mine two times first!"

"Shut up, Claire! If you're gonna talk, at least make sense."

"Should I tell her you guys are out here?" asked Lightning, who was very confused. This week was going crazy.

"Yes, please!" said Alex. "Tell her it's Claire, Alex, and Hailey."

"Hey!" said Hailey. "My name should be first! Not last!"

"Wait!" said Claire. She turned to Lightning. "You're her boyfriend, right?"

"Fiancée, actually," said Lightning.

"_What?_" said Hailey. "You guys are getting _married_?"

"Ugh, I'm gonna kill her!" said Alex.

"Just shut up and let Lightning talk her, for god's sake!" said Claire.

"Thank you!" Lightning went in Doc's office and let out a huge sigh. Thank god the girl-fest was over.

"Any particular reason you're in here?" asked Doc.

"Well, yeah. Sally, there's some friends outside waiting for you."

"Which friends?" asked Sally.

"An Alex, a Claire, and a Hailey."

Sally's mouth drop about a foot before she spoke. _Is it seriously them?_ "Really?"

"Really. Chrysler, they're crazy."

Sally smiled when she heard that, although it hurt like heck. "They're just being themselves. Hey, Doc, when do you think I'll be done?"

"You're not leaving this place for another day, Sally," said Doc. "With these injuries, I think you need to go to a hospital."

"A hospital? How long do you think I'd be there?"

"About a week."

"WHAT? Lightning's Piston Cup is only four days away, and I'm gonna be in the hospital?"

"If you're lucky. There's still a slight chance you might die, Sally. That engine of yours in ruined. If that engine gives out, you will, too."

"Doc," said Lightning. "She can't die. You've got to make her live."

"I can't do that, Lightning. If you want to take her to the emergency room at the hospital, she might be okay. But somebody's going to have to get her there."

"Mack can take her. My girl's gonna live. I love her."

"Lightning," said Sally. "I know I'm gonna live. I've lived through worse than this." She paused. _No! I wasn't supposed to say that!_ "Where would you take me anyway?"

Lightning had to think about that. "Wow, Sally, I, I don't know. Maybe LA or something."

"LA's too far away, Lightning. We have to stay within Arizona (A/N: Radiator Springs _is_ in Arizona, right? Well, it is now!)."

"Then we can go to Phoenix."

"Where would you stay?"

"I have relatives there. My sister'll take me in."

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah. Secret past, remember?"

Sally froze. He had just given away a part of his past. He had a sister! "…Of course. Secret past."

Lightning smiled. He wouldn't tell her the rest until they were married, but still. "Hey, speaking of Piston Cups, Doc, I need to talk to you about a… deal I wish to make with you."

**Aw, now I feel bad for Lightning and Sally. Sally's near death, and Lightning might lose her. What am I doing to them? Aw, crap, I better not cry over fictional characters.**

**Oh, great. Now I have another song stuck in my head. Leave the Pieces. Gorgeous song. Hm, why not do a parody?**

**There's something you can do or say, you're gonna say I rock anyway, so just give a review when you go. ;-)**


	13. Italian

**Ugh, school. Back to school. Darn you, back to school! I hate 7th grade. There's too much homework, there's so many people, and heck, I already have a crush, which means I will be crushed. I'm scared…**

**Disclaimer: Cars has yet to be released on DVD. It is not until then that I own the movie Cars. And even then, I won't _own_ the movie.**

He couldn't help but be upset. She was almost _dead_. If she turned that engine of hers on, she was gone.

"Hey, Lightning!" said Mack. "Boy, Flo keeps giving me the same thing without even asking me if I want it! I've been ordering the same thing too much."

"Yeah, that's great, Mack," said Lightning. He kept trying to get his mind off of Sally, but he just couldn't. "Listen, you wouldn't mind going to Phoenix would you?"

"Phoenix? We have to go to Florida!"

"Oh, no we don't. Sally's in trouble."

"But your Piston Cup! At this rate, we won't be there for another five days!"

"Listen, Mack, all we have to do is drop Sally off at the hospital in Phoenix and then speed away to Daytona. That's all."

"Harv's gonna kill me, Lightning!"

"So what? We either save Sally, or die trying."

"Fine, we'll do it, but we have to leave now! And we're taking the interstate."

"The interstate's fine."

The possibilities kept creeping into his mind. What if she forgot she couldn't turn on her engine, and then some huge explosion inside of her would happen? What if she didn't live? What if she actually died? Would he take control of the Cozy Cone and Wheel Well, or would it be given to somebody else, or would they just let them die all over again? Had she even started to write her will yet? He looked over to her as she was smiling and laughing with her friends. She had been so excited to see them when she first came out. And it wasn't like he was eavesdropping or anything, but he could overhear them talk about a "Jason" or whatever. Who was Jason, and why did Sally always seem to change the subject when they talked about him?

"Pit stop!"

"AH!" Lightning jumped and looked over to his right. "Guido! What are you doing?"

"Pit stop, boss."

"No, no, no! No pit stop _before_ the race!"

Guido's smile faded. Lightning felt bad for him as the smile turned into a frown. "Hey, sorry." It was amazing how Guido always was never seen because of his size. _Hm…_ "Hey, Guido?"

"Pit stop?"

"No… but I do need you to do something. Do you speak any English?"

"Eh?"

"I… guess not. Well, I need you to eavesdrop on Sally and her friends. Anything about a "Jason" or something must be important."

"Okay, boss!"

"And I'm not your boss."

"Then pit stop?"

"No!"

"Okay!" Guido sped off with a little smile on his face, as Lightning shook his head. Guido was able to do way too many things to count for the size he was.

"Kid, you alright?"

Lightning turned around, and found that Doc was right behind him, looking a bit worried for him. "Oh, I don't know. I hope Sally's alright, is all."

"That's not it, is it?"

Once again, Doc had found Lightning's mind, looked inside of it, and explained what he was thinking straight to him. "You surprise me, Doc. You really surprise me."

"But what is it?"

Lightning sighed. "Look, I'm just worried that she's not gonna make it. I mean, it's stupid for me to even think that's she'll die but…" Lightning trailed off into silence, wondering why he felt this way. Sure, maybe it was because the Piston Cup might as well be Chick's right now, or maybe it was because of those magazines that had him and Mater on them, or maybe it was just because Sally was too important to lose. "…Doc, I can't lose her. Do you have any idea what it's like to have somebody's life on the chopping block because you let them do a dangerous thing? While I doubt you do, feel free to answer the question."

"Actually, you wouldn't believe that's the reason I crashed in '54." Doc had said that meekly, almost as if he was shy to say it. It suddenly came over Lightning.

Elle.

It was obvious! Elle was dead! No wonder Doc never wanted to talk about her. He was too upset over her death. "She actually died, didn't she?"

Doc's frown, which was already low enough, kept sinking. He was started to turn around and drive away, but I seemed like something stopped him halfway. "No."

"Pit stop!"

"AH!" _Not again…_ Once again, Guido seemed to be impossible to see. "Alright, what did she say?"

"I suoi amici continuano a dire che dovrebbe tranquillo uscire con questo tipo ma non sembra disposta. Dicono che è lei 'ex'."

"Um…" Lightning couldn't understand a single word Guido had just said. It was Italian! Lightning had never heard Italian until he met Luigi and Guido. That was it! Luigi! He could translate! "You!" He turned to Guido. "Go get Luigi!"

"Okay!" Guido kept he stuck smile on his mouth and drove away to Luigi's Casa Della Tires.

Lightning looked over to Doc, who was still a little upset. His facial expression told something, he just couldn't tell what. "Are you willing to tell me what happened?"

"Maybe some other day, son, but not today. Now, about that deal you wanted to make."

"Oh, yeah, right. The deal." Lightning got his sly smile back on his face. "Here's the plan. If I win the Piston Cup, you let Sally and I marry each other."

"And if you lose?"

"Choice is yours, Doc."

"How about if you lose, you never find out about Elle?"

"You know what? That's a great deal Doc."

Lexie was racing down the road, panting at the same time. She seemed like there was trouble. "Lightning! Sally! Somebody!" Everybody turned around to her, wondering what was going on. "Please tell me you've seen Mater!" Everybody shook their head. Since when was Mater apart of their troubles? "NO! Chick was right!"

"Chick? What about Chick?" asked Lightning. "He didn't hurt Mater too, did he?"

"No, worse. He forced him over to the dark side."

"What's that mean?"

"I don't know! But something's going on. When Chick came back to the starting line, he said that the rusty tow-truck was next. He must've thought Sally actually died, but I don't blame him. She fell off a pretty deep cliff."

"So, he's going to do the same thing to Mater?"

"I guess so. But Chick is tricky. We better keep an eye on him."

"We being you. I have to leave for Daytona Beach."

"What about Sally?"

"We're taking Sally to a hospital in Phoenix."

"Why?"

"Have you seen her?"

"Forget Sally! Lightning, for all we know, Mater could be breathing his last breath! You don't want him to die, do you?"

"No, but I don't want Sally to, either! You watch Mater, alright?"

"Fine! I will. But only because…" Lexie was trying to find a reason why she was doing this. "…because…"

"Because what?"

"Because! Well, anyway, see you in Daytona!" Lexie drove off to Tailfin Pass to make sure Mater would be okay, while Lightning shook his head.

"Lightning!" said Mack. "We need to get a move-on!"

Lightning groaned. "Fine." He drove over to Sally and her friends, and yet again, he heard the name Jason.

"Sally, come on! You _know_ Jason still loves you," said Claire.

"Well, I'm in love, too. Only not with him!" said Sally.

"I thought you hated racecars!" said Alex.

"Correction," said Hailey. "I _knew_ you hated racecars!"

"Well, not anymore," said Sally. "Can't you just go past the fact that he's a racecar and see that he's an actual person?"

"But Jason's coming like, right now!" said Alex.

"ALEX!" screamed Claire. "You weren't supposed to say that!"

"Shut up!" said Hailey. "Guys, can't we just respect Sally's decision?"

Claire and Alex thought about this for a moment. It _was_ Sally's choice. On the other hand, she was their friend! They weren't going to let her go with a _racecar_! "NO!" they screamed spontaneously.

Lightning was struck in awe when he heard this conversation. Were racecars really a living tragedy to some people? Who was this Jason guy? Was Sally lying?

Did she still love him?

He didn't really want to listen to the conversation anymore, but he didn't want to stop it. He wanted to know more, but at the same time, this was too much to handle.

At this point, they were all talking, fighting at the same time. The adlibbing was crazy. How could anybody keep up with it? Lightning rolled his eyes in confusion. What in the name of Chrysler was going on?

**So, Jason. You know a little more about him. He he. Good to know about him, isn't it? Well, anyway, you guys have fun at school, too. More fun than me. Hey, guess what? We got Lightning and Sally yogurt drinks. We would've gotten Mater, too, but I don't like Strawberry. Sorry, Mater…**

**Back to school, back to reviews. Do it.**


	14. Time to Tell

**Hey guys, guess what? I have way too much homework _again_! Yet, I still have time to write. I love the bus. But I hate it as well. Well, it's better than last year. "YOU KIDS STAY OUT OF THE AILE!" X-D**

**Disclaimer: Cars is owned by Disney/Pixar. I own none of the characters in this story except for Tessa Carson, Lexie Gears, Jason Kiichiro, Oscar Plymouth, George Hummer, Will Lube, Derek Egzaust (Sally's brother), Claire, Hailey, Alex, and Elle Lightyear. The Veronicas are copyright of themselves, but the Cars versions of them, the Veronicars, is by all rights mine. If you ask to use them, you may. And YES, that's a lot; I know, but still, all my characters. No touchy.**

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"Hey, you're the one who went out with a KIA!"

"At least I get more guys than you do!"

Lightning backed away. He could tell this conversation was going to get very ugly. He rolled his eyes in disgust, wondering when this was going end. Was it going to end? Would this "Jason" remain anonymous for the rest of their young lives? If Sally actually died, he would probably never find this out!

"Pit stop!"

By now, Lightning had thought he had gotten used to that, but still, "AH!" He jumped and turned to Guido, who was standing right next to Luigi.

"Guido-a tell me you needed translation!" said Luigi.

Lightning sighed. It was about time they had arrived. "Yes, please. Guido, say whatever you said to me in Italian."

Guido began, smile on his face the whole way. "I suoi amici continuano a dire che dovrebbe tranquillo uscire con questo tipo ma non sembra disposta. Dicono che è lei 'ex'."

"Basically what he is-a sayin'," stated Luigi. "Is that-a Sally has an ex-boyfriend and her friends are trying to convince her to go back-a together with this man."

Lightning just sort of froze in shock. She probably did still love him, but how was he supposed to stop her? Would they have to race or anything?

Sally was heartbroken by her friends. How in the world could they be this stereotypical? But as she slowly regained her thoughts, she realized she had been like this until her now three-year-ex-boyfriend, Harold, had broken up with her because of some stupid demotion she had when first looking at Hummer and Plymouth. "Guys, look." Everybody quieted down when they heard Sally speak that softly. She was in a serious accident, which made them rethink what they were saying to her. "I didn't discourage Claire's fiancée when he proposed to you, even though everybody knew he had a past of cheating a lot." Claire smiled at this statement. Even though they hadn't gotten married, they were still together. "And Hailey remember the one time you went out with my brother and never told me?" Hailey looked down to the road that Lightning paved. She felt bad about it. "I didn't hate you for that at all. And Alex, remember the time when you told me that you had 520 one-night stands a year, and then one of them turned out to be a stand that lasted for about five months?" Alex laughed a bit and rolled her eyes. "One-night stands almost meant nothing to you, but still I supported you in trying to make it work." Sally started frowning a bit. "It just kills me that you can't accept the fact that Lightning and I love each other."

Claire was the first to respond to this. "Oh, Sally! Don't make me cry over this stupid fluff."

"You are such a drama queen."

Claire smiled at this. There was the Sally everybody knew and loved.

Alex and Hailey both nodded at each other before turning to Sally again. "Look, Sally," said Alex. "We know you love Lightning, and we wouldn't want to ruin something this good for you. But the truth is…"

"Jason," said Hailey. "You realize he isn't over you. And he sent us here so we could try to convince you to go out with him. Not Lightning."

"Did he pay you?" asked Sally.

Hailey, Claire, and Alex and looked at each other, and then back at Sally. "Well…" they all started.

"Guys, it's fine, alright? I understand you guys love your money."

"Yeah, yeah," said Alex. "We do. No matter who gives it to us."

"We're greedy pigs!" said Claire. "Just please, don't rub it in our faces."

"Chick rubbed it in ours," said Hailey. "He said if we didn't do it, that Tessa girl would be gone."

"Tessa?" asked Sally. She hadn't heard from Tessa in a while. Most of the time she would refuse Lightning's lessons and try to learn on her own, but eventually that would start to not work. She would twist and turn on Willy's Butte until she ended up falling for the cactus. Lightning would have to get Mater to tow her back in, and then he would have to help her. Soon enough, she would be out of here. "Where is she, anyway?"

"Oh, _yeah_. About that…" said Claire. "Alex?"

"I'm not saying it!" said Alex. "You say it!"

"I'll say it!" said Hailey. "We kinda locked her up in the doctor's garage with some rusty old tow-truck."

"Ah…" said Sally. "Mater. So that's where he is." Sally attempted to drive over to Doc's garage. It didn't turn out so well, though. Her engine felt like it was on fire. It was about to burst if she went any further, and that wouldn't have been pleasant for anybody. "Uh, guys?" she managed to mutter out threw her pain. "A little help here?"

"We're not pushing you!" said Hailey.

"I can't push cars, Sally," said Alex.

"Well, they dropped out. I will, too," said Claire.

"Great…" Sally murmured to herself. She looked over to the bright-red racecar, who was talking to Mack, and immediately remembered why Mack was there in the first place. Lightning looked over to Sally, who looked down right after he saw her, but then looked back up at him. Despite the fact Sally looked horrible, she gave him an assuring nod, telling him that this wasn't the end. It would _never_ be the end.

----------

_You're a little obsessed with me_

_And I'm a little bit scared of you_

_The way you look and stare at me_

_Baby, it's time I let you know_

Lightning shook his head. Lexie had given Sally a "Get Well" CD right before they left, which she actually just pulled out of her collection, but they had no idea it was the Veronicars! They had enough of the Veronicars for the past six months. She had specifically said that song five was the best, but at the moment, it couldn't be worse.

Phoenix was where they were going. Lightning wouldn't stay that long. He'd just give Sally the quick "I'll miss you. I love you. Blah blah blah," and get out. Nothing much hopefully. It was a thirty minute drive. Mack's trailer only had Lightning and Sally in it, but still, it felt crammed. But in some way, neither of them minded it. But maybe that was because they had been in this situation before. Being stuck in a closet, forced into their first kiss, oh yeah. Good times. Good times.

_You can call me six times but still, I won't pick up the phone_

_You can spend all your money on me but still, I'll stay low_

_You can write a million letters everyday confessing to me_

_That I am the girl of your dreams_

_But nobody ever asked me _(A/N: This song is called Secret by the Veronicas. Loverly song. Check it out)

The song almost fit perfectly to what Sally was thinking of Jason right now. He _did_ still love her, but she didn't love him anymore. Sure, they were deeply, madly, hopelessly in love, but by now she had moved on.

_I never looked at you that way_

'_Cause I always thought you were-_

"Lightning?"

Lightning looked over to Sally, who was biting her lip. She definitely looked nervous about something, he just didn't know what. "Yeah?"

"I have to tell you something." Sally didn't know why exactly she was going to tell him, but she was going to. "You wanna know about Jason, don't you?"

"How'd you know I did?"

"Lightning, I saw you, but I was pretending not to… until I actually looked over."

"_Right_. Well, yeah, I do."

"Alright." Sally bit her lip again and looked at Lightning sincerely. "But you have to promise not to tell anybody."

Once she said that, Lightning knew this was important. "Did he, like, try to kill you or something?"

"No. No." Sally shook her head. "But the pressure was enough."

"What kind of pressure?" Lightning was in a bit of a shock. "I was joking."

"My life is no joke, Lightning." Sally was starting to sound a little concerned about telling Lightning this. She had been through too much to handle, something he wouldn't have any idea about. She was going to tell him anyway, but only because she had gotten far enough in this conversation that she had to tell him.

She didn't know why she was doing this, but she took a deep breath and started her story.

**Next few chapters will be Sally's story, so, lots of blasts from the past. Awesome, huh? But guess what? (Breaks out in song) I'm bringing sexy back. _Yeah!_ Them other boys don't know how to act. _Yeah!_ Yes, I still have that song stuck in my head. Who's up for another parody?**

**I'm bringing the reviewers back. _Yeah!_ Them other readers don't know how to act. _Yeah!_**


	15. Except for One

**It's Me & U now. I've been waiting. Think I wanna make that move now. Baby tell me how you like it. Hey, xForeignxConceptsx, that was for you! Because I'm really awesome. Nah, just kidding. I love that song! Alright, so besides the end, which MIGHT give away who's Sally's father is (no, it's NOT Doc), it's all Sally's past. Hope you like it:-D**

(A/N: Sally's narration is in italics)

**2003, Club Kia, Los Angeles, CA**

_I had just started working at Hummer and Plymouth Law Company when I received my first promotion and a demotion right afterwards. My friends decided I needed to find a new guy. Honestly, I agreed with them. My life was bombed because my boyfriend, Harold, broke up with me because of my stupid demotion. Claire was engaged to the guy who owned the place, so needless to say, we always got in free of charge. I was talking to Alex while we were waiting for Hailey and Claire._

"Oh, there's a hott one!"

"Nah, that ones hotter."

"You kidding me? A Ford?"

"What's wrong with a Ford?"

"Sally, look at you! You are a Porsche! Porsche's don't go out with Fords!"

"Well, I wouldn't think that Claire, a Cadillac, may I add, would go out with a Kia, would you?"

"At least the _Kia_ owns this place!"

"Alex, a brand name doesn't make a car."

"And neither do tires, but still, you want them to look good, don't you?"

"I'm not going to be looking at the tires either! Listen, I don't want another jerk like Harold, who only wants me for my money. Gold diggers are not my type."

"But they're the only ones that look good with you! Once again, Porsches go out with other Porsches, and Jaguars, and Aston Martins, and successful and the occasion hott Pontiac, or in Claire's case, a Kia, but if you go out with a Ford that looks like he hasn't gotten a paint job in two weeks, Sally, you're going to be known as the girl who doesn't think that looks count and loves people from the inside. Yes, that's 3/4s of it, but not the whole part. You have to be attractive to be awesome."

"And you would know. How many one-night stands have you had?"

"About ten a week."

"Which adds up to about 520 a year."

"Why are you so smart?"

"I went to this place called law school. You should try it sometimes. Makes you better at spelling."

"Shut up, Sally. I can spell!"

"Spell calculator."

"Easy! C-A-L-Q…" Sally had gotten Alex yet again. "…later!"

"Hey, you can't leave!"

"Why not?"

"Hailey and Claire are coming. You don't wanna miss out on a fight with them, do you?"

"Oh, shut up, Sally."

_My friends and I got into conversations like this all the time. We always disagreed on what mattered in a boy._

"Hey, Sally-Bella!"

Sally looked over to see her other best friends, Hailey and Claire, with Claire's fiancée all over her, like he usually was. "Hey there, you idiots," Sally said sarcastically.

"Good to see you, too, freak!" said Claire. "Jeffry, stop it."

"How can I stop?" said Jeffry, a 2002 Kia Sedona LX, Claire's fiancée. "You're too hot."

"I know, but it's girl time now, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. Sally needs a boyfriend. I'll leave you two. See you later, baby. Love ya."

"Love you." Jeffry drove away to his loving customers. "He's so amazing."

"Yeah, yeah," said Hailey. "Like you said, it's girl time. You ready for this. Sally?"

Sally sighed. "Do your worst."

_They did the worst they could ever do. They made guys line up to meet me. And I mean they made guys LINE UP to meet me._

Sally's friends all looked at each other with sly smiles on their faces. "WHO WANTS TO DATE A PORSCHE?" they all screamed at the same time. Every single guy, and even a few girls, turned around to see the Porsche, Sally, as she was turning from light blue to pink, even though it was almost impossible to tell from the dark lighting. She was embarrassed out of her wits. What kind of friends did she have? Almost immediately, guys were pushing and shoving, trying to get in the so-called line to meet Sally. She looked at her friend, eyes wide open. Her friends tried putting on fake smiles, even though it was obvious that this wasn't how they planned it. "You…" started Hailey. "Told us to do our worst." Sally just shook her head, wondering what was going on in their brains.

_Guy after guy, loser after loser, everybody gave me a number, all of which I burned when I got home._

_Except for one._

_Jason._

This was about the 57th. A 1986 Dodge Omni. He had a Northeastern accent that made you want to scream. "So, hott stuff-"

"See you later."

The guy looked confused. "But, you didn't even give me a chance to meet you, baby."

Sally looked stern as she was also annoyed. "I'm not your baby."

"Fine." The guy started being sly. "But incase all these other guys are freaks, we can connect." He gave Sally his number, along with a kiss on her fender.

Sally winced. "Get off of me…" she grunted through her teeth. He got off and left, smiling. He had just kissed a Porsche! Sally rolled her eyes in disgust, wondering what was wrong with her friends.

The next guy looked a little concerned about this. He was a black 2001 Toyota Celica with bright green eyes that would make any girl except for Sally swoon right away. He was only able to see her from a distance when he was in line, but even from there, she looked amazing. He could tell that she was feeling embarrassed by her idiotic friends, but she was going to go through it, anyway. After all, Mr. Right could be in that line. When he saw her right in front of her, he was speechless. She wasn't just amazing, she was _gorgeous_. "…wow."

Sally was kind of surprised by his reaction. What guy would just say _wow_? Was it because she was hideous? "Do I really look _that_ bad?"

"What?" The guy was stunned. How would she even think that she looked bad? "No, it's the opposite."

Sally was even more surprised to hear this. She was actually talking to a guy who would _maybe_ care about her if they went out. "Um…" She couldn't hold it anymore, and broke out into a smile and giggled a bit. "Thanks." She started biting her lip, not knowing where this was going, but at the same time, not even caring. "So, um, I'm, uh, I'm sure that there's other people in line waiting to kiss me senseless."

"You like that?"

"No, but my friends are putting me through this. I guess it makes up for me being some boring wannabe lawyer."

"Wow. Smart _and_ pretty. I like it."

As hard as it was to believe, he had just called her smart and pretty in the same sentence. _No_ guy had said that to her. "…wow."

"Oh, do I really look that bad?" He smiled. "The name's Kiichiro. Jason Kiichiro."

Sally laughed. "Sally Carrera. Nice to meet you."

"Well, I feel like following the trend of giving you my number, so here you go." Jason passed a piece of paper that looked like a business card. Sally squinted at the card, trying to find the company where he worked for. She squinted a bit harder and still couldn't see anything. "I know my job's not the most impressive, but so far, you've seen through the fact that I'm a Toyota."

"I can't even read it!" Sally laughed. "But neither your job nor your brand matters. Thanks, Jason. You're probably the only guy I'm going to actually call from this line."

"Ha ha. Very funny. Well, I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Jason gave her a wink and moved out of the line and back onto the dance floor.

----------

**2006, Will**y'**s Butte, Radiator Springs**

He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it.

That hotshot had gotten him in a pickle once again.

Sally's friends were scramming, trying to get the garage door open, forgetting the combination. Doc came by, yelling at the girls, and they confessed everything. How they locked them in, why they were here, and what Jason was going to do. Jason had actually arrived by now, to find that dear Sally was on her way to the hospital, close to death. As soon as he heard that she was there, he rushed onto the interstate, trying to get to Phoenix before they did to confess his love to her. Again.

But that didn't really matter at the moment.

Yes, it was true, Elle had _not_ died. But she had left him long ago because of his crash. Maybe it was because she believed he was dead, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was because she was as shallow as Dina. She could never date a _loser_ like him. He didn't know that with that crash, his whole life would shatter.

But that wasn't even the whole story of what happened. What went on _afterwards_ was even worse.

Even though he had made it seem like her was Sally's father, he wasn't. But somebody in the town was, even though it was a little unbelievable. Dina wasn't even her mother, for god's sake. She had kidnapped Sally when she was a tiny little car, and immediately ran off. Doc had remembered that day like it was yesterday. She was left outside in watch of Doc from his garage, and she just drove by, thinking nobody was watching, and took the child with her, as she was crying as loud as she could. From then on, Doc was the only one who knew what had happened that day. But even then, he liked watching Sally talk to Dina in that manner now. It was good to see that even though she had been raised to do the opposite, she was being a kind, loving person, just like she needed to be.

Unfortunately, she was probably going to break poor Lightning's heart for Jason. She would think that now her life in LA could be repaired, and she would leave Radiator Springs _and_ Lightning. in the dust.

But everybody in the town was praying for it not to happen.

**Everything is effed up straight from the heart. Tell me what do you do when it all falls apart- Oh, hi! You're back. Right. Oh, by the way, that song was the Veronicas, When It All Falls Apart. Buy their CD: The Secret Life of the Veronicas. You'll love it, I promise.**

**Gotta pick myself up. Where do I start? Will you give a review when it all falls apart:-p**


	16. Dude, No

**It's so hot, I can't stop, the music fills the room. Oh, HI! Hey, I got Vanessa Hudgens's CD. It's so awesome. I'm in love with the song Let's Dance. That's the song I was typing. ;-) I'm glad you guys liked my last chapter, but let's get more reviews this time.**

(A/N: Sally's narration is in italics)

**2003, Hummer & Plymouth Co., Los Angeles, CA**

_When I got Jason's number, I didn't call for the longest time. Work was getting busy. Eventually I had gotten one position away from where I wanted to be, which was a prosecution lawyer. If I was a defense lawyer, I wouldn't want to defend somebody who could've been guilty. One day, Oscar Plymouth, one of the bosses, told me to come into his office. I had never been in there, and it nearly scared the living life out of me. I swear, one more demotion and I was going to quit. I had worked so hard to get to this one spot that I dreamed of being at, and this could've been my chance._

Sally looked at the door in which she was about to enter in order to get to Oscar Plymouth's office. It was the hugest door she had ever seen. She couldn't feel her engine at one point from the amount of fluttering. She was scared for her life that they were going to fire her. But then she realized that this could be a good thing. It would mean she could be able to start her own law business like she dreamed of doing. Sally looked over to the desk of where to secretary was typing away on her computer. How was she so _fast_? When Sally was at that position, she was never able to type like that! "Am I aloud to go in?" The secretary simply nodded, still typing like the world was going to end in five minutes. Sally looked up to the top of the door, and then looked right back in front of her, took a deep breath, and drove through the door. There he was, Mr. Plymouth, a dark blue 1969 Plymouth Road Runner standing right behind his desk, looking as if he was just waiting for her to enter, which he probably was.

"Ah, Sally," he started. "Good to see you."

­Sally nodded, not saying anything. She didn't want to make a bad impression.

"You're only one place away from being a lawyer, right?"

"Yes."

"And would you rather be a prosecution lawyer or a defense lawyer?"

"Prosecution."

"Well, congratulations. Will recently got fired due to his lack of attendance. You have the job. I'll give you the rest of the day off to get ready for tomorrow."

Sally's eyes went wide. Will? Will was her best friend there, and she would hate to lose him as a friend. But at the same time, this was the best moment of her life! "Thank you _so _much."

"No problem. Now, you know where his office was, right?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"You already said that."

"I know." Sally smiled and sped out of his office, every single bit of fear escaping. She drove off to her office, happy as could be, but immediately stopped once she got there. It was Will, and he looked happy as could be as well. Why was he like that? He'd just gotten fired! "Will, I heard."

Will, the black 1999 Buick Park Avenue looked up to Sally, amazing as could be. To him, Sally was pretty much everything. "Sal, hey. It's absolutely fine. I'm actually really happy."

Sally could feel her frown smiling a bit. "Really? Did you hear I was your replacement?"

"Of course I did. I'm happy for _you_. I wanted to start my own business anyway."

Sally giggled a bit. "Well, one day, I'll work for you."

"And I'll gladly give you five promotions within the first hour."

"Glad you like me that much."

Will chuckled to himself. "You'd be surprised. So, Hummer or Plymouth?"

"Plymouth. Thank god, too. He actually let me _choose_."

"That's because he has a thing for you."

Sally scoffed. "Yeah right. He's, like, way older than me."

"In this world, Sally, age won't matter."

_In a way, I sort of froze, but I could feel my head shaking, my eyes closing, wondering what he meant. My boss couldn't have actually liked me. I was way too young for him, and him of all people, the highest paid prosecution lawyer in the country, would at least have some sense that it was wrong._ "No. No, he wouldn't. I don't believe you."

Will's smile quickly faded when he had heard that, heart nearly broken. "Well then. I, uh, I guess I'll se you later, alright?"

Sally nodded, confused and scared. "Alright. Bye." Will drove past her, and although it seemed really spontaneous, yet planned, he passed her, giving her a kiss on the fender, quickly getting out of the office afterwards. She couldn't believe it. Did he just… kiss her? Well, no, but it was close enough. And oddly enough, after dropping her mouth a bit, she smiled, because as strange as it sounded, she actually… liked it. She looked around at the office, smiling, wondering just how lucky she was for a lawyer in LA.

----------

"Dude. No. Don't let Will catch you off guard! Jason's gonna be your one and only. You know it."

"I'm not sure, Hails. What if he thinks I'm boring?"

"Sally, let's face it. You're the most fun lawyer I will _ever_ know. Serious by day, partier by night."

"That doesn't matter! I've known Will for so much longer."

"What if he turns out to be a horrible boyfriend?"

"What if _Jason_ does?"

"…you got me there. But still! Just try Jason and see what happens, alright?"

After deep consideration, Sally nodded her head. "Only because you're my best friend."

_I picked up the phone, not knowing exactly what to expect. It was a little crazy, but at the same time I didn't mind. I dialed the number with caution, hoping this would work out, but then again, I didn't want it to._ The phone rang about three times before somebody picked it up. "Nuts and Bolts, Jason Kiichiro, founder, how may I help you?"

Sally's grill dropped. Nuts and Bolts? That was _the_ most popular paintjob parlor in LA. They were making money by the seconds. "And you call this job _unimpressive_?"

"Well, compared to a lawyer, it's horrible. Even if you're just a wannabe."

"Not anymore!"

"Seriously?"

"I got promoted today. It's kind of sad though, because I'm taking my friend's place."

"Your friend? Which one? Purple, white, or green?"

"None of those. It's a guy."

"Oh." The other line stayed silent for a bit. "Boyfriend?"

"What? Boyfriend? You kidding me? I'm single! I wouldn't call you otherwise."

"Right! Of course. So, anyway, you seriously like Nuts and Bolts?"

"Yeah! I mean, remember the case about the girl who died right after she got a paintjob?"

"And the family sued us, but it turned out she forgot to change her oil, and the engine exploded, which ruined other irreplaceable parts, therefore, killing her."

"It happens, I guess."

"So, anyway, to celebrate your promotion, why don't we go do something tonight? You like carnivals?"

"Um…" Sally looked at Hailey, who was too interested to bear, and she mouthed the words "He just asked me out!" and Hailey's grill dropped. "Sure, I guess so!"

----------

**2006, Mack's Trailer, 1-40, 15 Miles Away from Radiator Springs, AZ**

"You _sure_ you want me to continue?"

"Well, you can skip a bit if you want."

"How much?"

"We both know you go to the carnival, have a good time, kiss, do whatever, and then something horrible happens about a year later."

Sally stared at Lightning for about a minute in shock. "…whoa. Seriously, how'd you guess that?"

"I'm psychic." Lightning winked. "So, what happened?"

Sally sighed. "It's a little crazy what happened. I totally didn't expect it. I don't think anybody did, though."

"Must've been serious."

"Nobody believed me at first." Sally put on a half smile, trying to make it seem like a good thing that nobody believed her, but she knew deep inside it was the worst thing possible. She paused for a second, about to tell Lightning what had happened that next year, 2004. But then she turned to Lightning. "This is when you tell me that you'll guard this secret with you life. That you won't tell a soul."

Lightning nodded assuring. "Of course. If it's this important."

"Alright." She changed her face to a scared expression. "Jason never tried to kill me. But somebody did."

**Somebody tried to kill Sally, but WHO? God, people, I'm not telling. Have you guys heard of Paramore? Check _them_ out too! They rock.**

**Hey, I saw the Incredibles again! I might get obsessed again! But nothing can beat Cars, guys. **

**Vibrations, sensations, can you give a review? (Again, from Let's Dance)**


	17. Now I Know I'm Not Afraid

**Ef, you guys are amazing. TWELVE REVIEWS. That makes up for the four the last chapter. :-p Hey, I'm making a graphics site! I have the layouts I'm choosing from finished. You can see the links to them****in my profile. Tell me which one through PM, review, whatever. Anyway, this is when flashback from Sally's past ends. Thank god, right? Nah, just kidding. You loved it. ;-)**

**2004, Hummer and Plymouth Co., Los Angeles, CA**

_I didn't realize that this day was going to be so demanding. I looked over at my desk, and even though there was only one folder holding it all, there were about 50 papers messily stacked inside of it._

Sally looked confused. Since when did normal people have this huge of files? Was this even a normal person? She drove over to the folder, and flipped through a few pages. It looked as if somebody had filed for false bankruptcy, and whoever it was, they weren't a normal person. She turned the pages until it came to the defense's profile.

No it couldn't be.

Was it seriously Hummer?

It _was_ Hummer! It said his birthday and his life story and everything!

_I knew that this was going to be a tough case, and I thought I couldn't handle it at first. But then the fact that my boss trusted me with a case this big, this important, that could jeopardize the Hummer & Plymouth name, kind of made me believe in myself a little more than I should've._

Sally managed to put a smile on her face. This was a huge change. And finally, if she won this case, it would be an easy promotion.

"Hey, Sally!"

Sally looked over the large pile of messy papers to see Will. Had he been promoted back? "You're back!"

"Yeah, I'm a defense lawyer now, and I just wanted to visit."

"Aw, you're so nice. Thanks."

"No problem."

"So, turns out I have to save your boss from going to jail."

"Seriously?"

"Look at the case." Sally backed up next to Will so he could see the huge pile if files, and Will's eyes shot up.

"Wow."

"No kidding. It's gonna be a huge case."

"But aren't you prosecution?"

"What do you mean?"

"It means that you have to go against him."

"Wait! Against him? Seriously?"

"That's the bad side of being a prosecution."

"I never would've known without you, Will. Thanks."

"Hey, no problem. Oh, and I heard rumors that you became a rebel."

Sally could feel a smile on her face. "Yes, I got a tattoo."

"Come on, let me see it."

Sally laughed before turning around and showing off the tattoo she had gotten from Nuts and Bolts. "It's awesome, isn't it?"

"Wow. It's different, that's for sure."

Sally turned back around. "Don't worry, I'm still Sally." Again, Sally was smiling, but this time she was biting her lip again. "So, I, um, I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later."

They both stared into each other's eyes as if the stare wasn't going to end. They could both feel what was happening. Will was attempting to move closer without Sally noticing, but that would cause Sally to break the stare that he had been waiting for ever since he met her. Without thinking, he rushed a little forward and kissed her. Sally knew that he didn't know about Jason at all, but she didn't want him to be somebody that would cheat and know it. But strangely enough, she didn't want to stop. She returned the kiss, not knowing what would happen after that. She ended the kiss, backing up slightly. "Yeah, later."

"Alright, bye."

"Bye."

He drove out of the office with a huge smile on his face, while Sally shook her head in disgust of what she had just done.

----------

The case was already a very important, but the day it came, Sally's heart was racing like crazy. She was scared as ever, and she wouldn't be scared to admit it to anybody.

"Nervous?"

Sally looked over her rear-view mirrors to see Oscar Plymouth, looking excited. "A little. It's weird that I'm fighting against him rather than for him. Do you want me to purposely lose?"

"That's not what you're paid for, Sally."

Suddenly, it had come over her. _He_ had filed the suit! "But it's what I'm doing."

She looked over into her mirrors, and it wasn't the look that she expected. He was _furious_. She couldn't tell if that was the look that was going to make her run or not, so she stayed still for a while. He revved up his engine as loud as he could to warn her. "If you do, you're dead."

This sudden fear came over her. He was serious when he said that unfortunately. "No. I don't care if I end up dead from this. I'd rather die doing the right thing."

"Then that's how you'll die."

Sally's eyes grew as wide as she could. She was going to die, right then, right there. "Oh, damn."

She drove as far as she could without running into a wall, even though she did anyway, which made her bumper go crooked. He charged at her, but quickly thinking, she drove out of the small room, panting, scared as hell.

_I knew that this would be the end if I didn't get out. So I went to the only place that he could never find me._

_Route 66._

----------

"Oh, what, so you just decided to leave me all alone?"

"It's not _you_! It's my boss!"

_Jason and I got in a heated argument the second I called him. He asked everything. "Where the hell are you?" "What happened?" "Didn't you think about me?" I hated it. It was becoming too much._

"If it was your boss, why didn't you just quit?"

"He tried to kill me, Jason! This isn't something that happens every day."

"Couldn't you have told me first?"

"He knows my address! He would've found me!"

"What about us? Didn't you care?"

"I DO care, Jason! That's why I called! In the middle of nowhere I decide to waste the last of my money just so I can tell you I'm still in love with you and I want you to come out here with me."

"I don't want to come out in the middle of nowhere!"

"Am I not worth it! That's it, isn't it!"

"That's not it! Sally, I wanna marry you and have a family and all that stuff and then you just had to go away!"

"It has _nothing_ to do with you Jason! I love you!"

"You know what? If you're just gonna leave me and stuff, we're done." Jason hung up the phone leaving Sally with a heavy heart. What had gone into his head that made him want to ruin something that was so perfect?

_I guess you know the rest. I wound up Radiator Springs, overheated and exhausted. Doc told me if this town was a few miles further than I drove, I would've ended up dead. I guess it just wasn't time._

**2006,** **Mack's Trailer, I-40, Between Radiator Springs and Phoenix**

By now the next song from Lexie's CD was playing. It was called something like "I'm Feeling Lost," but how would they know? They didn't like the Veronicars. They never _would_ like the Veronicars. Sure, they wouldn't mind them after a while, but they had enough of Veronicars-Mania thanks to Lexie. (A/N: The song is actually Mouth Shut)

But in the end, that wasn't what mattered.

Sally had just confessed everything. Her boss trying to kill her, her friends abandoning her for quite a bit, and then there was the love square. As much as she tried…

"So, I'm guessing that you never really got over Jason."

Sally was biting her lip again. By now, Lightning had learned that it meant that she was worried that somebody would react wrong to something she would say.

"Sally, it's fine, alright?"

"No, it's not, Lightning. I mean, I know I still love him and stuff but…" _Oh… my…_ Did she say that last part out loud? She was looking at Lightning, who was putting on a confused face. No, no, this wasn't right! She turned around, biting her lip as hard as she could. "Lightning, I didn't mean that, alright?"

"You meant it."

"No I didn't!"

"Sally, you wouldn't have just blurted that out."

"Alright." Sally turned around, a tear falling off her hood. "I… I do… still love him." Sally shook her head in regret. _Why_ did she still love him? He didn't go with her when she left or anything! "But it's stupid! He told me in the end he wasn't going to give up how good life was for me to get away from _my_ life. He didn't even care!"

Lightning was a bit in shock. After she had claimed to her friends that she was over him, she said to him that she was still in love. "Look, Sally, it's, it's fine. I mean, I _guess_ I understand. I'm not going to stop you from loving him." Sure, he didn't really _want_ Sally to love him, but how could he help it?

Sally looked at him, worried. Again, she was biting her lip. She felt as if she had sent the wrong message. Her face was starting to look concerned. "Lightning look, just because I still love him doesn't mean that I don't love you! It's just…"

_And now I know I'm not afraid_

_I know exactly what you'll say_

_But I'm sorry, it's too late_

Sally nodded. "…it's just that. I know I'm not afraid to tell him that I wanna be with you and only you, Lightning."

Lightning shook his head. "You wouldn't mind being with either of us, you know it."

"Oh, what, so you don't believe me?"

"Well, maybe you're the one who lied to me all this time about him!"

"Well, maybe you didn't even need to know!"

"Sally, do I have to say this again? We're getting MARRIED!"

"If YOU'RE gonna be like this, I'M not GOING to marry you!"

"FINE THEN!"

"FINE!"

Lightning's anger was blinding the fact that he loved Sally and that he really wanted to marry her for about five more minutes. They both stayed silent, happy it was over. They _weren't_ getting married.

Wait a minute…

"We're… not getting married?"

Sally, who had also not realized what she had just done until then, looked up at Lightning, sad as could be. Sure, she had never seen him cry, but he looked close to it. "I guess… wow. Lightning, look. We don't even know if you're gonna win your Piston Cup. If you don't, then you know exactly what happens."

"We don't get married."

"Which was bad enough to begin with. If you do…"

"I get to marry you."

"Do you think you're going to win?"

"Sally, you got to realize something. I am _the_ Lightning McQueen. I actually _did_ beat Chick Hicks and the King to the finish line, and had Chick not of made him crash, I would've won. And had I not've been a jerk who didn't change their tires at the race before that, I would've won. And I _know_ that I would die for you, so honestly, this to me is going to be easy. Racing's dangerous and a lot of stuff can happen, but in the end…" Lightning trailed off as his voice got quieter. He was near a whisper when he said, "A lot of stuff could happen in the end, but it's worth it because of you."

**Aw, Lightning's so nice the way I make him. Ha ha, I'm so funny. I L O V E C A R S. Anyway, I need to choose an outfit for my Rascal Flatts concert this Saturday! (He he, sorry, Life Is A Highway66! Don't worry, I'll get pics and all that fun stuff!)**

**I know that Submit Review button's just dying to be clicked. It's yelling out "CLICK ME!"**


	18. Whoa

**Alright, everybody, this is when I tell you guys that EVERYTHING CHANGES! Mwah ha ha. I love being evil. Anyway, Sarah, I LOVE you for buying that Veronicas CD. Seriously, you're amazing. And I had the best time EVER at the Rascal Flatts concert! It was SO much fun. I don't have good quality pics, though. Gr. Don't worry though, Life Is A Highway66! I got some videos. Anyway, to the story!**

"Oh yeah, you're Lightning McQueen," said the ignorant desk assistant up until this point. She seemed like she'd smoked at least one pack of cigarettes a day.

"Well… yeah." Lightning was a little disgusted by this hospital. They'd found one closer than Phoenix. It was in Scottsdale, but it was dreadful. Still, it would get Sally better.

"Weren't you on every cover of the magazines with some rusty tow-truck?"

"I ran into him, for god's sake!" At this point, he had enough of this. Sally looked at him, slightly shaking her head. This was embarrassing on a lot of levels to her. As soon as Lightning saw her shake her head, he got it. "Sorry."

"Whatever. Anyway, she'll be ready to go in about two days because we can't exactly smooth out those dents. We aren't paint job artists."

"Can you try?"

"We'll _try_. So, she should follow me right now. Say your goodbyes."

Lightning looked at Sally with one of those "I don't wanna leave you" looks, even though he knew it would be best for the both of them. "I'll, um, I'll see ya later."

Sally looked back at Lightning half-smiling. "I'll be fine, I promise."

"You sure?"

"Like I said, I've lived through worse than this."

"I love you."

"I always will." Sally kissed Lightning lightly on the fender. "Bye."

"Bye."

With one last look, Lightning watched Sally drive away, worried that the worst would happen. Those doctors were going to _kill_ her if they weren't careful, and from what he had seen, they wouldn't be careful.

"Kid, if you stay on those floors much longer, your tires are gonna need to be sawed off it."

As strange as it was, that voice sounded like somebody he knew, even though he had never heard it before. Tessa wasn't there, but it was a southern girl from what the accent said. He turned around, and what he saw, it wasn't something that was expected, that was for sure. "_Whoa_."

The super-light pink 1951 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe looked confused. "I'm not that exciting, kid."

Still, Lightning was in shock. "You're, you're Elle Lightyear!"

Now the Cadillac was in shock rather than confusion, but still confused. "How the _hell_ did you know my name?"

Lightning was a bit amused by this somewhat ancient car. "I've seen pictures, heard stories, rumors that you married my pit crew chief, that kind of stuff."

The now identified Elle couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had _not_ the kid's number up until now, and now it all made sense. "_Whoa_. Where'd you hear stories, pictures, rumors? Where'd that come from?"

"Picture from Doc's…" Now he remembered that Doc was exactly _Doc_ to Elle. "…the Hudson Hornet's garage, rumors that he kind of hinted about, and Lizzie told m-"

"Lizzie? Lizzie as in married-to-Stanley Lizzie?"

"Well…" This wasn't making sense at all. How did she know Lizzie? "Yeah. But Stanley died a while ago."

"My god, this is twisted." Elle was shaking her head at the thought of this.

"Were you friends with her?"

"She was my mom."

Lightning was now confused, shocked, and amazed. This _was_ twisted. "…_okay_…" About now was when he realized that he had to go to the Piston Cup. Mac didn't say "make it quick" for nothing. "I, uh, I gotta go."

"Kid, wait, like, two seconds."

"What am I waiting for?"

"Just, just tell Hudson I miss him."

Lightning was a bit confused. They broke up over something, or they would still be together. "What happened with you two?"

Elle looked worried as she did surprised. She was a bit hesitant to what she was going to say. "It kind of started with this girl named Dina."

"Oh, so _that's_ what Doc meant."

"Huh?"

"Oh, uh, never mind."

Elle put hers eyes into the shape of confusion. "Whatever, kid. Whatever."

----------

**1954, Talladega Winners Circle**

These moments were repeating themselves, but he didn't mind. The more the merrier life was. He was living the dream. The dream job, the dream amount of money, the dream girl, everything was absolutely perfect. The photographers were taking as many pictures as they could. He had, after all, just _won_ the race before the Piston Cup. He watched Elle attempt to push through the crowd unsuccessfully, and Doc laughed. "Hey, guys, let her through." As if on demand, everybody moved aside for the girlfriend of the Hudson Hornet. "I thought they wouldn't let you through."

Elle was ecstatic about everything that was happening. She laughed. "Ha ha, well they did!"

"I'm glad they did."

"Good."

They two drove into each other's lips a kissed for a while, not wanting to stop. This was the way things were going to be forever with each other. They separated with smiles on their faces.

"Can I ask you a question?" Doc asked slyly.

Something was going on, but Elle couldn't put her finger on it. "…sure…"

"Alright. Well you know I love you."

"Of course."

"And I kinda want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Really?"

"So, will you marry me?"

Elle's grill dropped a bit, even though secretly, she wasn't shocked. She had been _waiting_ so long for him to ask this. "YES!" She rushed forward and kissed him as if it was their last.

Unfortunately, it actually was.

----------

Finally, it was the Piston Cup. It would be his fourth in a row. Everything would be absolutely perfect.

But… where the _hell_ was his fiancée?

He drove back and fourth, wondering where she was. Nonetheless, she wasn't there. Usually she would've been there about an hour ago, but not this time. This time, it was only two minutes before the Piston Cup started, and she _still_ wasn't there.

"Hudson Hornet!" somebody said, panting at the same time. It was a security guard, Hudson had guessed. "It's Elle!"

"About time she's here." He was a bit annoyed, but he couldn't be too mad. He was in love.

"No, she's not here! I came from the box just to tell you! We just got news! On her way here, she was in a crash!"

_A crash?_ This couldn't be possible. "How bad?"

"Bad enough that she's not here and in the hospital!"

"Who told you?"

"I forget the name, but it was a reporter."

"And you trust reporters?"

"Why else wouldn't she be here?"

This was all too much. Right when he was about to get on that field and race his heart out, _this_ had to happen. His heart sunk before he realized that this was real. She could've been dying, for god's sake!

_And attempting to win his fourth Piston Cup in a row, ladies and gentlecars, THE HUDSON HORNET!_

He didn't want to move. He just stood still as the crowd cheered with enjoyment. "GO!" the security guard yelled, and pushed him onto the field. _This isn't happening, this isn't happening…_ He smiled, just to fake it, to make the crowd think everything was fine. He wasn't the worst actor, because everybody believed in that smile. After a few laps around, the race started. Finally, the smile could go away.

Hudson managed to make a few turns without spinning out of control, though most of them were just like that, insane. Little after little, he was in last place, and had no idea what to do to get in front. He surged forward, trying to get a good spot, but all the cars were blocking him off. It was sad.

The security guard decided to stay in that room where the Hudson Hornet had come from, god only knows why. As if out of know where, somebody was ramming at him. "LET ME IN! I KNOW I'M LATE!"

"Miss Lightyear! You got out the hospital?"

"Who the hell told you that I was in the hospital?"

"A reporter!"

"And you trust reporters?"

The security guard had already answered this for the Hudson Hornet, even though that answer had been wrong. "Why are you late, then?"

"I ran into a tad bit of traffic! NOW LET ME THROUGH!" She charged enough that the security guard got scared and moved over so she could get through to watch her fiancée.

She couldn't tell, but it seemed to her that somehow Hudson had managed to get enough speed to cut through a bunch of cars, therefore putting him in about seventh place. She could tell the other cars were getting mad, maybe even a little jealous. One of them smiled right at Elle, and she didn't know what exactly it meant.

But it was those same cars who pushed Hudson the wall of the stadium, making him spin right on it. After that, Elle couldn't remember what had happened, but it wasn't like she needed to know. He was _dead_. And if he wasn't dead, he was going to die.

----------

"BUT HE CAN'T BE!"

"Elle, I know better than anyone that this Dina girl is as sweet as you are and would _not_ lie about death! Your Hudson is dead! I'm sorry!"

"YOU AIN'T SORRY! YOU NEVER LIKED HIM! YOU PLANNED THIS!"

"I didn't plan any of this, damn it!"

"Daddy, you just better shut up about this, because you _know_ you're happy."

"Am I happy that my daughter just lost the most valuable person in her life? _Hell_ no, Elle! I accepted him!"

Elle couldn't say anymore after that. He _was_ dead. She couldn't bear the thought of it. She started crying, tears hitting the ground everywhere she drove. _This isn't happening, this isn't happening…_

----------

**2006, Some Hospital in Scottsdale, AZ**

Lightning was in shock. Now he realized why Doc was so upset wherever he talked about her. She had left him! But it wasn't exactly her fault. This story _was_ twisted, and he couldn't help but ask _why?_ "Whoa."

"You seem surprised."

"Yeah, I kind of am. So, I'm guessing you just saw that he was still alive last year."

"Yeah, flipping through a magazine and there he was as your pit crew chief." She paused for a second. "You're a pretty lucky kid, you know that?"

He didn't really realize this until now, but he _was_ actually pretty lucky. "Yeah, I guess."

"Well, anyway, you said you needed to be goin'."

_Crap! Mack!_ "Right! Uh, nice talking to you."

"Hey, it's no problem. You go ahead and win that Piston, alright?"

Lightning sighed and remembered Sally. It was scary that she actually _needed_ to go to a hospital, but in the end, he could live with that, knowing that now he had a plan B that could actually help him get married to Sally. "I'll try, I'll try."

**I TOLD YOU YOU'D BE TOTALLY, like, AMAZED! I was so happy to write this, really. It got me to love Elle all over again. And you just can't beat those DocElle flashbacks.**

**Review…? Ha ha, no creativity right now. Rawr.**


	19. Feels Like Today

**This is for my ladies in the 280s Mercedes and the- WHOA! Hiya! That song (Show Stopper) is SO awesome. I love Danity Kane, might buy the CD. Don't know yet.**

**Finally finished chapter 20. So effin happy. Anyway, I love love LOVE those reviews. _Shame we didn't get much the past two chapters._ Well, we always have this time, don't we? Ha ha, you guys rock. Anyway, story time. Nothing much. But it's my story, and that's all that matters.**

"Kid, WHERE IN THE NAME OF GOD ARE YOU?"

"I'm on my way, Harv!"

"You better be on your way! Because they just announced the hurricane that just so happens to be on the day of the race."

_Hurricane?_ By now, Mack had literally _just_ entered Phoenix, so that could've been good or bad. "Did they postpone it?"

"THEY MADE IT TWO DAYS EARLIER! You better be on the run right now, or we are finished with!"

"Harv, do you even _care_ that we just arrived in Phoenix?"

"PHOENIX? You're gonna have to take a plane, kid!"

"What about Mack?"

"Tell him to go back to Rainy Day in Springs and do yourself a favor by using your popularity to get on the fastest plane there is."

Lightning sighed and looked out of his window. "For the last time, it's _Radiator Springs_."

"Hey, let's hug it out, okay?" (A/N: Gotta love that line) Harv hung up without a sign of it, leaving Lightning all to himself, besides Mack. Everything this day was insane. Sally had almost died, she told him that her boss tried to kill her, she said she still loved Jason, _and_ he actually found out the reason why Doc hated talking about Elle.

This, however, was only the beginning.

----------

Plane rides with your worst enemy are never fun. It's worse when they have to sit right next to you.

Especially when that enemy is none other than the man who had almost killed you fiancée.

Lightning had found himself on the quickest flight ever because one _very_ grateful girl gladly gave up her seat so he could get to this Piston Cup. It was no wonder she was a fan. In return, he smiled for a picture, gave an autograph, and a classic "Ka-Chow!" moment. It was just like Doc was on that Piston Cup track in 1954, pretending everything was fine, when it really wasn't.

When he did get on the plane, he was actually starting to think things would be okay, that Sally would live, that he'd win the Piston Cup, that Doc and Elle could be reunited or something amazing.

Unfortunately, he looked down the aisle of the place, and the worst thing, the one thing that would totally throw him off, was driving down, right there.

"Chick," Lightning murmured to himself. Of all things, _this_ had to happen. Chick had to come and make everything mess up. _Well, _he though. _At least I'm not sitting next to him._

Perhaps he thought too soon, for Chick had pulled up to Lightning's row, turned to him, and rudely whispered "You're in my seat, rookie."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Lightning thought out loud. This wasn't fair, that _he_ had to show up! Lightning moved to the window seat unwillingly, and looked outside. Sunny Phoenix, Arizona, that's what they were in. Even though with the mood he was in, rain would've been absolutely perfect.

"So, how's that fiancée of yours, McQueen? I heard she's _dead_! Shame, isn't it?"

Lightning pretended he wasn't listening to him, even though it was obvious from the mad facial expressions he was making that he was.

"Well, at least you have that rusty tow-truck!"

He could feel the anger from inside of him, and by now everybody could feel the madness of this argument from anywhere. Sure, they didn't care, but they still could tell something horrible was brewing. Lightning wasn't trying to hide it now, but he should have, because that's when everything exploded. He turned around, mad as possible. "Okay, look here, Chick! She _isn't_ dead, and she's going to live! And that rusty tow-truck? I have nothing to say about other than that you are taking that way too seriously, and that's only making your immaturity show even more." As he looked back at that comeback, he thought it was the worst one he ever had, but it got Chick to shut up for the rest of the ride, so now, he was okay with what he had said.

----------

_I woke up this morning_

_With this feeling inside me that I can't explain_

_Like a weight that I've carried_

_Been carried away, away_

Lightning had been on that racetrack for about five minutes, and he hadn't gotten above 30 MPH, the slowest he had _ever_ been on any road. It wasn't the race obviously. He was the only one who would even think about going there when feeling restless at two in the morning. He was like that, a little too driven. He went a little faster to get about 50 MPH, even though he still wasn't feeling like he was a racecar.

_But I know something is coming_

_I don't know what it is, but I know it's amazing_

_You save me, my time is coming_

_I'll find my way out of this longest drought_

He felt an unexpected urge to go a bit fast, and he got up to about 65 MPH, still feeling slow as ever, but maybe that was just because this was a racetrack, not an interstate or Radiator Springs at all.

But he felt the urge again, an urge that told him to again, go a bit faster. Just a little. _Come on, McQueen, MOVE!_ And with that, he was a racecar again.

_And it feels like today, I know_

_It feels like today, I'm sure_

_It's the one thing that's missing, the one thing I'm wishing_

_Life's sacred blessing and then it feels like today_

_It feels like today_

It took him a while to get used to how fast he was going again, up to 120 MPH, and he could live with that. Finally, for once those worries were gone. None there.

But of course, he thought about how the worries were gone, and then he thought about the worries. Now that he thought about it, Sally would probably live. She was safe enough. It _was_ a hospital, crappy or not. But that Piston, if he didn't win, well, you know the rest. But he couldn't picture that. Not at all. Well, maybe Sally would wait for him.

Or maybe she wouldn't, just like Jason wouldn't for her.

_You treat life like a picture_

_But it's not a moment that's frozen in time_

_It's not gonna wait_

'_til you make up your mind at all_

Jason. Ugh. Jason, from what he'd heard, not only sounded like a jerk, but a complete idiot. And the fact that Sally still loved him! That only added to the problem.

Speaking of problems…

Were Sally and Lightning getting married at all? After _that_ fight? They said "Fine." They weren't getting married, but did they change that in the end? Lightning said it was worth it. Sally said she'd always love him. This was confusing as it was scary.

_So while this storm is breaking_

_While there's light at the end of the tunnel_

_Keep running towards it, releasing the pressure_

_That's your heartache, soon this dam will break_

The though of everything that was happening only made Lightning go faster. The anger, the sadness, even the love. Mostly the love, actually. It was always, _always_ good to know that Sally would be there for him if he ever needed her.

Well, he wasn't sure of that. But he could pretend that he was. Just for now.

Even though he hated pretending that kind of stuff.

_And it feels like today, I know_

_It feels like today, I'm sure_

_It's the one thing that's missing, the one thing you're wishing_

_Life's sacred blessing and then it feels like today_

_It feels like today_

"KID!" he heard. It was faint, so he thought he was just imagining it. Who would be up at two in the morning, besides him?

"MCQUEEN!" This time it was louder. Was there really somebody there? He couldn't decide whether to stop or not.

But there was something behind him…

He could tell. It was going the same speed as him. He was _right_ behind him. He didn't want to stop though. That urge just kept coming.

It was a man's voice, and it definitely sounded familiar, but he hadn't heard the voice in so long, he'd guessed, that he couldn't make out who it was. He slowly started hitting the breaks on accident, it was something automatic. Too many times, Doc was one to yell that on the middle of the racetrack to stop him

Wait…

_It feels like today, I know_

_It feels like today, I'm sure_

_It's the one thing that's missing, the one thing you're wishing_

_Life's sacred blessing and then it feels like today_

_You'll try today_

Lightning made a 180 turn and immediately started driving the other way, for right at the entrance was in fact who Lightning was. Doc. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU COME ALL THIS WAY FOR ME?"

Doc smirked at this comment. He didn't exactly know why he suddenly came this way for him, but he was practically his son. Lightning hit his breaks right in front of him, and he smiled. "Why the hell do you care, kid?"

"Just wondering. You hate planes."

"In this case, I had no choice. I do warn you, only Guido and Mater are here. Fillmore isn't even coming."

"Oh, really? Is technology finally getting into his head?"

"He said planes are worse than TVs. I agree with that, though."

"No kidding."

"Why practice now?"

"No reason, just restless. And now that I think of it, no press. And no possible way to crash."

"Safety reasons?"

"Why not? The media got you to think that Elle died, anyway. Who likes the media?" Lightning chuckled. He looked at Doc, who was far from amused. He wasn't furious, like he'd normally be, but sad. He wasn't even looking at him. "And, uh…" He tried to cover up what he had just said, even though it obviously wasn't working. "Well, they made the world think I was gay! Come on, I had it worse."

"Where'd you find that out?"

"She misses you, Doc."

Doc looked up, eyes squinted. He didn't know where the kid was getting to, but it wasn't nowhere, that was for sure. "What's that mean?'

"She obviously doesn't think you're just a pointless memory." Lightning couldn't help but smile. He was proud of these moments, where he got Doc confused and thinking, because normally, Doc never had to think about things, he would just know. Oddly enough, it only seemed to be Lightning who saw these moments to be caused by himself.

It took a while for Doc to process everything. He _met_ her? Was that even possible? If she missed him, why'd she leave him in the first place?

"She thought you were dead."

That was understandable, now that Doc thought about it. But was it really her, the one who had always been there with him during those times?

He thought so. "Kid, that explains a hell of a lot."

_It's the one thing that's missing, the one thing you're wishing_

_Life's sacred blessing and then_

_It feels like today_

_You'll try today_

**Suddenly I see this is what I wanna be. Ha ha, I love that song, too (KT Tunstall is amazing)! And I just bought it! So happy. Lately, I've been OBSESSED with old Rascal Flatts songs. Not that I mind, they're so amazing. Hard to believe it's been two weeks since I saw them.**

**HEY! I got my website up! SO HAPPY! Anyway, the link's in my profile as my homepage. Check it out and leave me a comment! I love you guys. MWAH!**

**Those review's got the power to be, to power to give, the power to see, yeah, yeah. (More Suddenly I See)**


	20. You Know I Can't Do This

**I HAVE CARS I HAVE CARS I HAVE CARS! OMG It's so awesome. Mater and the Ghostlight, if you've seen it, remember when Fillmore's putting away his fuel? My god, his face made me burst out laughing. X-D So, anyway, it's STORY TIME! Woo!**

What else was he supposed to say? It _did_ explain a hell of a lot. And he was happy because of that. Elle didn't leave him, he…

What _did_ he do?

_I died, she thought,_ he kept telling himself.

But wasn't it his own fault?

He didn't mean that it was his fault that he crashed; it was those other cars way back then, not him. Sure, he was in bad shape that day, but again, it wasn't his fault he crashed.

He was, in fact the one who left her.

_I was such an idiot, I just assumed she left._ As confused as he was, he was figuring out the answers to the questions that should've been answered over fifty years ago.

"Doc, you know, it's all Dina's fault. If weren't for that bi-"

"It's not her fault," he tried to assure the racecar. "It was mine."

Lightning froze. "_What?_ It wasn't your fault, Doc. She, she convinced her that you were dead!"

"But I didn't come back."

"Didn't come back to what? Tell her you were still alive or something?"

Doc looked back down.

Finally, _now_ Lightning got it. Again, he froze, but not exactly in shock. It was more in worry for Doc right now. Everything was starting to fall into place.

Sort of.

Not everything would ever fall into place. But for now, this much was good.

----------

"Yes, Lightning, I'm _sure_ I'm gonna be okay. They aren't that bad."

"It's not them I'm worried about, it's you."

"Well, don't. I swear to god I'm going to be absolutely fine. For all we know, I could be better by the time you come back to Radiator Springs. Then we can celebrate your win and all that fun stuff."

"And _then_…"

"Yes, we'll get married. I know. Don't worry about me, babe. I love you."

"First time you've called me that."

"I thought you liked it when I randomly get sexy."

Lightning couldn't deny this. Whenever she showed her tattoo, something always went through Lightning's head. Something the tiniest bit dirty, that wouldn't be mentioned at this time, due to the fact this fan fiction would go up a rating. Even though he had to admit, that was his nature for any girl, but for Sally… it just blew his mind, to say the least. "…yeah…"

"Ha ha, you're so cute." Sally could tell that the second she said that, he would go blabbling on about how racecars are not _cute_. They can be _hott_, not cute. She never listened, though. It was something that she always teased him about, and she would probably never stop.

Even though it was just over a phone, Lightning, for the umpteenth time in his life, blushed about this. His face was getting hotter, and he mumbled "Sally, racecars aren't cute."

"HA! I knew you would say that!"

"I always say that, don't I?"

"I've heard it about five times this month. One time I didn't even say you were cute, and you just randomly started talking about that."

Lightning chuckled to himself. "Well, again, I hope they don't kill you."

"For god's sake, they won't! Alright?"

"I love you."

Sally's stomach fluttered with joy hearing that, and she smiled. "I love you. Bye."

"Bye."

Sally went back to her TV, making sure Lightning was driving as if the race was that day. It would, after all, help them in the future.

"Sally Carrera, right?" It was a male doctor, who seemed no less of a voice that she recognized. It might've been the doctor who tested on her before, but it didn't sound like it…

"Yeah, that's me."

"I see you haven't painted over that tattoo I gave you, what, two years ago?"

Sally's eyes shifted over to the ground, and they got wider and wider. It couldn't be. Not the person she was thinking of, not the guy who actually _gave_ her the tattoo… "Jason?" Sally hesitated with this word. She hadn't spoken to him in about two years, not to mention that she didn't want to talk to him at all.

"I see you remember me, baby."

"Shut up," she said in disgust. He _knew_ she was with Lightning, which was probably why he even thought twice about their relationship. "I'm _not_ your baby."

"I'd think you'd want to be it, though. You know I still love you."

Jason was doing too much, and she wanted it to just stop. "_You_ know _I_ can't do this! I'm in love with somebody else, and he wouldn't leave me to save his life!"

"I left because you left _me_!"

"Are you saying you would rather have me DEAD? Because if I hadn't ran, I wouldn't be here!"

"That's leaving me to save your life! Did you not love me enough?"

Jason had gotten Sally into a little problem here. She _did_ actually leave him to save her life, and maybe it was because of something she wanted to deny before, but that was okay. "Yeah. I didn't love you enough. That's it, isn't it?"

"You're kidding, right? I mean, seriously, I though you really would come back."

Sally took a deep breath and sighed. Jason was clueless, and she was finally seeing that. She was glad she'd left him in the end, and it was official. She didn't love him anymore. And god, did it feel good. "No. I would _never_ come back."

----------

That phone call gave Lightning an extra urge to get out there and practice. "You're so cute," she'd said. He laughed to himself. Racecars aren't _cute_, they were _hot_. If a racecar was cute, than Sally was cute, and she was far from it.

Well, actually…

Sally was cute, in her way. She of course, was hot, but he never told her that to her face since the day he met her. It was kind of funny, actually…

"Kid, you racing, or what?"

Lightning turned around to see Doc standing at the door that separated him from the racetrack. It was weird how Doc was always there to interrupt something, good or bad, or maybe something that didn't even had a feeling, not until he arrived, at least. "Yeah, I'm racing, I was just talking to Sally."

"You really love her, don't you."

"And that's a surprise to you?" Lightning smirked to himself. "Since when are you so clueless? I mean, she's _everything_ to me, and oddly enough, you still act like I'm still that kid I was a year ago!" Lightning just had to let out so much anger he had from Doc that had been held in him for about a year. "You're acting as if I don't really wanna marry, when the truth is, she's the reason I'm who I am! The reason you're even here, the reason you even know Elle still loves you! Sally is my LIFE, Doc!"

Shocked? That was an understatement. He was _amazed_ by the kid's words. "How'd you get so smart?" he wanted to ask, but he didn't. He just stayed quiet. "Come on, you gotta practice, Lightning."

Lightning sighed. Had he just made that speech for nothing? "Fine," he mumbled, and nudged open the door to the racetrack.

----------

Lightning was rounding his last lap, heading for the finish line. He could smell the victory already. Not that you can actually smell victory, though.

"Alright, McQueen, pretend it's the Piston," said Doc into the headphones. He was still a little shaken by Lightning's little speech, so he didn't say much to him, but somehow, Lightning had gotten this far, being in first. Even though it was just practice, Doc knew he was right. If Lightning was gonna win that Cup, he was going to have to pretend it was now. He watched Lightning surge ahead, and finally, a football field away from the finish line.

But then he worried. If this was the real deal, he would be getting married. Or would he? He just couldn't think straight.

And then he slipped and crashed into the wall, cringing. If _this_ was real, he would loose all chances of getting married. _All_ chances.

Car after car passed him, and he finally moved across the finish line, in about fifth place. In this world, fifth place was last. And everybody knew that.

"That's enough practice for today," Doc said. He knew Lightning wasn't exactly at his best, and he didn't want to push the kid.

"Doc, I don't know if I can do this," said Lightning, a little light-headed. Nobody was as blinded by his emotions as him on that racetrack.

"Sure you can do it. The whole town has faith in you."

Lightning sighed as he slowed down and drove into his pit stop. "You sure?"

"The whole town and your fans."

With that, the former rookie smiled. He was happy that he just might be able to do this.

"BOO!"

"AH!" Lightning jumped and turned around to see somebody he _never_ expected to see in a long time. He was shocked for a bit, but he quickly got back together. "Becky!"

"Ha ha," said the silver 2001 Corvette 1. "I knew my baby brother would miss me."

"Why the hell would I miss you?"

"Omigod, Lightning just said the h word…" the racecar's sister taunted.

"Shut up…" he said mockingly.

"Hey, I don't give a crap if you tell me to shut up or not. You're lucky you even have me."

"Why would I be lucky to have _you?_"

"Silly Lightning," Becky continued. "If it weren't for us, you'd just be gettin out of that foster home two years ago."

Lightning eyes went wide. _Nobody_ knew about that, not even Sally. He leaned close to his sister. "Look, it's not my fault I'm adopted," he whispered. "And nobody knows."

Becky backed away from him and smiled. "Wait until I tell that little girlfriend of yours."

"NO!"

"She's gonna have to find out eventually."

"How do you even know about my girlfriend?"

"As if you haven't been in every single magazine with that tow-truck. They mentioned that you'd said that some Sally girl was your boo."

"Who says boo anymore?"

"I just did to scare you."

"Besides that!"

"Who cares? Lightning, my cute little baby brother," Becky teased. "If you don't tell her, I will. End of story."

**So, Sally official DOESN'T love Jason, Lightning's adopted, I love writing this story! He he, I love freaking you guys out.**

**I've been listening to Aly & AJ a LOT. Gah ha, random, yes:-p**

**If you believe in magic, go and give a review, whether if you like it or not, I'm not letting you choose. ;-)**


	21. My, Oh My

**HALLELUJAH IT WORKED! Ha ha, I'm just so darn happy, don't you see? Thankies for the overflow of reviews, I still love it:-D**

**On with the story…**

It all came down to _this_.

_This_ wasn't exactly the easiest thing to explain.

_This_ was excitement, fear, and depression at the same exact time.

_This_ was the Piston Cup.

_I can do this,_ he told himself. _I'm faster than fast, quicker than quick._

Oddly enough, that didn't help this time.

This wasn't _just_ the Piston Cup. It was the chance of a lifetime, the one chance that could make his life better or worse. It of course, was the Piston Cup, therefore, if he won, he would get money, Dinoco might ask for him to be sponsored by them again, and for all they knew, it could get Doc to have a little more respect for him.

But it was so much more than that.

At this point, Lightning figured that Sally's phone call meant they were getting married, so he knew he had to win this.

Plan B wasn't going to work right then, maybe after a week. Plan B was actually pretty easy. Get Elle. Get Doc to see Elle. Convince Doc it made up for him losing the Piston Cup. Simple.

Lightning, however, didn't want to resort to plan B, because Doc was hard to get through. Everybody knew that out of all the people in the town, that if it was a miracle to get permission from somebody, that somebody was without a doubt Doc.

_This concrete road used to be just dead_

_We'd drive out here after work_

_Every Friday night when I was eighteen_

"HA!" Lightning yelled at whoever was playing that music behind him. He had a pretty good idea, though. "Lexie, I caught you!"

"Damn…" Lexie started, but she immediately paused her music after she remembered that she had _never _said that word. "Oh, did I say that?" She added a fake laugh to that question, even though she was horrified. "I've been influenced by you, you know."

"By me?" Lightning scoffed. "_Doc_ I would believe."

"What do you have against Doc? Lately it's been that you _loathe_ Doc or something."

"I _do_," Lightning wanted to say.

But he didn't.

Why he didn't, it was obvious. He could never loathe Doc. Sure, time to time, he would _really_ get on his nerves, like the day before, but never in his life had he even come close to hating Doc. "Nah, he's just annoying."

"Meh, I guess. But I guess that means I'm _really_ annoying, huh?"

_At least she's admitting it,_ he said to himself. But before he could say anything, Lexie continued to play her music by some country duo or whatever.

_This parking lot used to be a field_

_I drove here like an olds-mobile_ (A/N: Had to change the lyrics to fit the Cars world)

_Long before the Sonic and the Wallgreens_

"Who is this?" asked Lightning, hoping to god the Veronicars didn't go country in less than two days.

"Gee, Lightning, I would hate for you to hate _this_ band as well."

----------

"Okay, everybody, we're on in five, four, three, two, one!"

Bob Cutlass and Darrel Cartrip both faced the camera, which in a millisecond would start rolling, and smiled. "Bob Cutlass here with my partner Darrel Cartrip here at the Daytona International Speedway, where it is bound to be one exciting Piston Cup!"

"You got that right, Bob!" Darrel joined in. "It's just like last time, only take away the King. It's McQueen versus Hicks tonight, and I have yet to find out who's _really_ the better racer!"

"Everybody's excited today, Darrel. This is the greatest rivalry in racing _ever_! Both Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks are tied in point and this game will just top it off."

"I guess we'll see if bigger numbers really mean a slower car, or if Lightning will strike again."

"Lightning McQueen would've won the Piston Cup last year had he not stopped right in front of the finish line and backed up to push the King across the finish line, which got him in third place last year _and_ an offer from Dinoco to be sponsored."

"But he turned it down to stay with his new found pit crew and friends. If that's anything, that's loyal."

"Right you are, Darrel."

"And Chick Hicks, man, people have called him the most arrogant car in racing. He crashed the King last year at the Piston Cup, and if McQueen hadn't stopped, he would've ended up second, but ended up in first place. As far as the fans were concerned, though, he could've been last."

"His fan base dropped a whooping ninety percent, even larger than the Dixie Chicks! (A/N: Please note that I absolutely LOVE those chicks, so I'm not dissing them, it's comedy) And Darrel, I have to tell you, _that_ is saying something."

"All I can say is, McQueen, buddy, you better watch your back."

"We'll be back after the break." Both of the reporters smiled into the camera and out to the world, to let them know everything was going to be absolutely fine during the race.

And Darrel was definitely right. Lightning _had_ to watch his back, or he was going to end up dead.

----------

The crowd for tickets was wild. All tickets were actually sold out, but people were waiting in lines to get on the waiting list, and those lines turned into immense blobs of "NO CUTTING, YOU-" and "I WAS HERE FIRST, FREAKING-", and it was definitely wasn't a site that she was expecting to see. She was hoping for no pushing or shoving at all, but _no_. They just had to make her dents ten times worse than they were. She was, after all, the fiancée of Lightning McQueen, and he wouldn't accept this for her on his life if he knew. But he wasn't there. He was doing his weird "I am speed" thing and wouldn't believe anybody who said that Sally Carrera was there.

"Money for the poor! Oil! Fuel!" she heard to her left. She wanted to ignore it, but she couldn't help it. The poor person was suffering, and though she had nothing that could help him, something was going on in her head. As if she knew this person.

There was no way.

Nonetheless, Sally turned to her left, and it turned out that she was wrong. She was very wrong. Even though she didn't exactly know how it was possible, but it was. "Oh my god."

The thing that she saw to her left looked as if he had been in five car wrecks and hadn't gone to the doctor at all, nor did he get a carwash in over five months. It was quite a site to see this happening to 2000 Aston Martin Vanquish with the license plate of X5OKI38. "Derek Egzaust, what has the world done to you?" Sally asked the car.

He looked up in absolute shock of what he had just heard, and scoffed. "The world told me I wasn't good enough, took Dinoco away from me! Impeached me, you idiot!" he said in anger.

"A little mean to call your baby sister an idiot." She shook her head in disgust and looked down to his little cup, holding no more than twenty dollars in one and five dollar bills. "How'd you get down to this?"

"Sally Carrera, you look pretty bad yourself," he joked. "They impeached me because I "didn't see what they saw." I saw loads of money! What else was there to see?"

Sally laughed to herself. "No wonder you were mom's favorite." She looked down at the cup again and smirked. Her brother was finally getting what he deserved. Punishment. He was now God's personal joke, and she absolutely loved it. "I knew I didn't have your genetics."

"Well, why are you here?" he asked rudely. "I'm sure you have that Crappy Cone to take care of."

"I'm here for my fiancée, you freak. It's called _love_, something you wouldn't know anything about. You'd actually be pretty good on that racetrack yourself. You could be the next Chick Hicks."

"_He _won the Cup last year, not that McQueen kid. God, he's a great racer, but I don't think that Rust-eze is exactly what I would call sponsor worthy for that kind of racer. He's fast, but he's a damn idiot."

"_Don't_…" Sally threatened, but he had no idea. He would _never_ say those things if he knew that he was her fiancée. "…don't make fun of my fiancée."

"Oh, and I'm guessing _you_ convinced him to go ahead and be nice to them, take them, instead of a great company like Dinoco!"

"SEE? This is why you and I never _ever_ got along and never _will_ get along, because you're such a jerk!"

"Well, you're so goody-goody! You gave up your life for Radiator Springs life, where it's always the fifties! Are you crazy?"

She couldn't believe that she was hearing this, even though she had been waiting for it from the moment that she saw him. Wouldn't he have the _least_ bit sympathy for her, feel a little bad?

_ATTENTION!_ the speakers blared. _THIS IS YOUR LAST FIVE MINUTES TO GET YOUR TICKETS AND GET IN YOUR SEATS! Gates close soon._

The rush began as everybody scrammed to the ticketing booth, and there was ten times more yelling and pushing than there was before, and Sally felt like that if she moved, she was going to get into another wreck, which she didn't want at all. She just wanted to get to a gate and get in, but that was near to impossible.

But after looking for two more minutes, she found it! There was an opening! And lucky her, it was leading right to the track! She drove to it, abandoning her crazy brother for the love of her life, ready for whatever was coming.

As she drove towards it, cars started whizzing by her, making her dizzy.

_Oh,_ she thought to herself. _That's why there was an opening._

**TWO OR THREE MORE CHAPTERS! Is that amazing? YES! ;-) Well, I need to get back to homework. My school's a high school in middle school form. :-(**

**Review like you won't review again!**


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